Korea's KIMM Delivers 15kW Nitrogen Chiller for Chip fabs, Launch Set for 2027

A 15kW industrial chiller that cools to -120°C using plain nitrogen as its refrigerant has passed performance testing in South Korea, with a commercial product targeted for 2027. The system, built by the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), offers semiconductor fabs a cooling option with zero global warming potential at a temperature range that etching tools increasingly demand.

The timing matters as much as the numbers. Etching processes, which carve intricate patterns onto chip surfaces, require cooling fluids at around -100°C. As devices pack in more integration, etching precision requirements tighten, and the cooling load on fab infrastructure grows with them. Conventional vapour-compression chillers that serve this niche typically rely on refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP), a growing regulatory and corporate liability for chipmakers with carbon commitments.

How the system works

The chiller runs on the Turbo-Brayton cycle rather than vapour compression. It compresses and expands nitrogen to generate the cooling effect, exploiting a refrigerant that is both abundant and climate-neutral, with a GWP of zero.

The second design choice addresses a problem unique to cryogenic machinery: lubricating oil freezes at these temperatures. KIMM's system uses oil-free turbomachinery supported by magnetic bearings, so the rotating shaft spins without any lubricant that could solidify at -120°C.

The engineering payoff shows in the start-up figures. In performance testing, the chiller reached -120°C or below within 30 minutes of start-up, then settled at its target cooling load of 15kW within 60 minutes. The takeaway: the machine moves from cold state to full production cooling in under an hour, a practical requirement for fab tool support.

From lab to market

The technology has been transferred to Chago Engineering, a Korean semiconductor chiller manufacturer, which is targeting the 2027 product launch. This is a confirmed technology transfer with a named industrial partner, not a research roadmap; the 2027 date is the company's own commercialisation target.

The current system builds on earlier KIMM work. In 2024, the institute demonstrated cooling performance exceeding 10kW at -100°C. The new machine raises capacity to 15kW while pushing the temperature floor down to -120°C or below.

Dr Junseok Ko, Head of KIMM's Department of Energy Storage Systems, said the team had worked to advance the technology towards commercialisation since setting the goal of developing an industrial chiller in 2024. That two-year path from a 10kW demonstration to a transferred, launch-ready design marks a fast conversion of research into a commercial pipeline.

Why nitrogen matters for the supply chain

The refrigerant choice changes the commercial picture in two ways. First, zero-GWP nitrogen sidesteps the phase-down schedules that constrain high-GWP refrigerants across major manufacturing jurisdictions, removing a future compliance cost for fabs. Second, nitrogen is already piped through every semiconductor facility as a process gas, so the working fluid ties into existing site infrastructure rather than a specialised refrigerant supply chain.

The demand side is equally concrete. Finer etching at advanced nodes means more heat to remove at lower temperatures, and the cooling demand grows with each device generation. Chago Engineering enters that market with a domestic Korean technology at a moment when fab equipment supply chains are under pressure to regionalise.

What comes next at KIMM

The institute is not stopping at -120°C. Researchers continue work on Turbo-Brayton cooling systems capable of reaching -250°C and -269°C, with potential applications in superconductivity, space, hydrogen, quantum technologies and nuclear fusion.

"Building on this achievement, we will continue developing industrial cryogenic cooling technologies that can be applied not only to semiconductor manufacturing but also a wide range of promising future industries," Dr Ko said.

If Chago Engineering holds to its 2027 timeline, semiconductor tool cooling gains its first commercially tracked nitrogen-based option at the 15kW class, and the race to deeper cryogenic temperatures for quantum and fusion markets will have a proven industrial base to build on.