The surface wettability of the samples was tested by performing water contact angle measurements as descripted into methods section. The purpose was to evaluate the protective capability of the deposited CrN layers, which means that the surface must exhibit hydrophobic properties (contact angles > 90°). Such surface will prevent water infiltrations and will have self-cleaning behavior as well. Figure shows the results obtained on the samples deposited by DC power method for each deposition time. It can be observed that for the 5-and 10-minutes deposition the surface is hydrophobic (contact angles of 99.5° and 98.2° respectively), while for 15 minutes deposition the surface is almost hydrophobic (contact angle of 88.9°). Interestingly, the contact angle decreases with the increase of the CrN layer thickness. For the HiPIMS power supply, similar results are obtained. For 5-and 10-minutes deposition the contact angle is 98.5° and 95.2° respectively. For the case of 15 minutes deposition time the contact angle is 89.5°, which is a limit case, close to the hydrophobicity condition. The results are displayed in Figure . Similar to the DC power supply case, the contact angle decreases with the increase of the deposited layer thickness. This means that the interface between Si substrate and the CrN layer plays a key role in the resulted wettability property of the surface.