Qnity Electronics has rolled out a new Kalrez® sealing compound engineered for high-temperature service inside semiconductor fab equipment.

The new perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) part extends the Kalrez portfolio's thermal ceiling for deposition, etch, and thermal-treatment chambers that routinely operate well above 300 °C and push elastomer seals to their chemical and mechanical limits.

Qnity operates as the electronics-focused separation from DuPont, carrying Kalrez into an independent corporate structure rather than leaving it inside the parent company's specialty chemicals business.

What does the new Kalrez grade address?

Kalrez seals serve static and dynamic locations across process tools. They sit in lid seals, slit-valve doors, gas-inlet fittings, and chemical delivery lines where perfluoroelastomer parts must resist plasma chemistries, acids, and solvents while maintaining vacuum integrity.

Process steps at 3 nm and below — and across the 200 mm and 300 mm tool fleets that run them — increasingly rely on atomic-layer deposition (ALD) and high-temperature CVD stages. These drive demand for elastomers with higher continuous-use temperature ratings, lower compression set, and reduced particulation. Qnity is positioning the new compound for that workload.

The company has not disclosed the specific temperature rating, cure system, or commercial pricing in the public release.

How does Kalrez fit the semiconductor sealing supply chain?

The fab sealing market is concentrated among a handful of specialty polymer suppliers. Qnity's Kalrez line, Greene Tweed's Chemraz, and Daikin's DAI-EL are the most cited FFKM families on process-tool bills of materials.

For chipmakers, sealing failure is a yield and uptime problem, not a commodity problem. A single particle event from a degraded seal can scrap a wafer batch. Unplanned chamber downtime cuts tool availability — typically the most expensive line item in a fab's cost structure.

Qnity's separation was structured to give the electronics business independent capital allocation while preserving access to legacy polymer research. For fabs that have historically negotiated Kalrez contracts through DuPont's broader portfolio, that change in corporate identity reshapes the procurement relationship.

Why does high temperature matter now?

Three trends push elastomer requirements upward:

• ALD steps running at sustained temperatures in the 350–400 °C range
• High-temperature anneal and oxidation for gate-stack formation in gate-all-around (GAA) devices
• Longer mean-time-between-clean cycles that hold seals at temperature for thousands of hours

Standard FFKM grades lose elasticity and increase compression set at those temperatures, shortening maintenance intervals. Qnity positions the new compound as a higher-temperature drop-in that fabs can install without requalifying surrounding tool designs.

What's the commercial outlook?

Tool counts are rising as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung add capacity in Arizona, Ohio, Taiwan, and South Korea. Each new etch or deposition tool consumes dozens of Kalrez-class parts over its operating life. OEM requalification cycles typically stretch across multiple quarters before volume orders begin.

The release carried no quoted executive statement or published shipment target. Qnity's next milestone will be sampling to tier-one process-tool makers — a path that usually runs six to twelve months before the new compound reaches high-volume wafer production.