Valve World 2023

Product Finder
United States
United States

Tank trailer with hydrogen and H2 filling station on the background of a green field and blue sky. Renewable energy

Manual operate ball valve at offshore oil and gas central processing platform, manual valve

Thank you for joining us at Valve World Americas 2023

Kalrez® Perfluoroelastomer Parts

General Overview

DuPont™ Kalrez® Perfluoroelastomer Parts in Energy
DuPont™ Kalrez® Perfluoroelastomer Parts in the Chemical Process Industry
DuPont™ Kalrez® Perfluoroelastomer Parts - Custom Shapes

Valve Sealing

DuPont™ KVSP™ - Reducing Fugitive Emissions
DuPont™ Kalrez® and Vespel® Polymeric Solutions for Valve Sealing

Newest Kalrez® Compounds 

DuPont™ Kalrez® OG193 Perfluoroelastomer Parts
DuPont™ Kalrez® 7375 Parts for High Temperature Chemical and Water/Steam Resistance

Case Studies

Technical Data

DuPont™ Kalrez® Application Guide (KAG)
Technical Report on Kalrez® in RGD Tests in Hydrogen

Seal Outgassing in Wafer Processing

Most integrated circuit manufacturing processes operate in high or ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environments. It is important that vacuum levels are maintained within specified limits to insure optimum process efficiency, uniformity and consistency. Specification of an appropriate size vacuum pump for the system is the primary mechanism for maintaining vacuum levels for processing; however, seal outgassing can play a role in the ability to control this processing variable. Even more important is the ability to control the uniformity of the process environment within the chamber. While an adequately sized pump can typically compensate for changes in vacuum level due to seal outgassing, it will not have the capability to control potentially harmful changes to gas uniformity or composition within the chamber. Changes in the partial pressures within the chamber caused by outgassing can cause quality problems in layering processes such as ALD, CVD, oxidation, diffusion, etc.

In many UHV systems, metal seals are used to avoid this issue. However, metal seals are not always effective and/or practical. Some of the difficulties associated with the use of metal seals are:

Difficult to install
Expensive
Non-reusable
Poor sealing performance in dynamic applications
Potential for component damage in quartz and ceramic sealing applications

Therefore, it is important for vacuum system designers and process engineers to understand the outgassing characteristics of elastomeric seals. Currently there is no industry standard for measuring and characterizing elastomer outgassing performance and a limited amount of useful data is available.

This study evaluates and compares outgassing characteristics for three different classes of elastomeric seal materials typically used in semiconductor process environments using a test methodology developed by DuPont.