Multiple manufacturers of fluid heaters used in semiconductor production now offer PFA instead of PTFE for various reasons. This change saves manufacturers time and effort when developing heaters for semiconductor manufacturing applications. Uncover the best info about PFA vs PTFE.
PFA differs significantly from PTFE in that it can be injection-molded and extruded, considerably lowering its cost while providing superior electrical properties with dielectric strength four times higher than that of PTFE.
Cost
Chances are, whether driving your car, skiing down a slope, or making dinner, products made from PTFE have likely crossed your path at some point. As part of the PFAS family of chemicals, PTFE has been found contaminating air, water, and food around manufacturing plants; though regulators have taken measures to restrict the production and use of certain PFAS chemicals like this one, nevertheless, it remains ubiquitous among consumers products without restrictions or oversight from regulators.
PTFE is widely utilized as a coating on nonstick cooking pans and in containers and pipes that handle chemicals that corrode metal surfaces. Other practical properties of this material include excellent chemical inertness, low friction levels, and reliable electrical insulation properties over a wide temperature and frequency spectrum.
PFA is similar to PTFE in many physical properties yet has superior resilience and creep resistance. Furthermore, unlike PTFE, which must be sinter-processed before molding can occur, PFA can be melt-processed for moldability, making it more economical than its PTFE counterpart.
PFA, like PTFE, is highly inert with an extremely low coefficient of friction, making it an effective lubricant. Furthermore, PFA boasts high tensile strength, excellent chemical resistance, and electrical properties; however, it offers less heat resistance and has a shorter flex life.
Flexibility
Fluoropolymers like PTFE and PFA both boast superior chemical resistance, temperature capabilities, electrical insulation properties, and weathering resistance – qualities that make them valuable tools that resist weathering in harsh environments.
The difference between PFA and PTFE lies in their molecular structures: PFA contains seven to fourteen carbon atoms, while PTFE’s chains consist of thousands. As a result, its superior creep resistance and thermal stability may result in less stress cracking, offering better creep resistance and thermal stability than PTFE.
PFA stands out from PTFE by being hot-melt moldable, which makes production more straightforward and faster. Making molds for complex PTFE parts can be costly; therefore, switching to PFA may be more cost-effective and enable manufacturers to produce parts identical in design to those made out of PTFE.
Molded PFA parts appear to resist dry-erase marker pigment, unlike their PTFE counterparts. When marking with a marker on a PTFE block, liquid ink puddles together on its surface rather than penetrating deeply enough into it for scoring purposes – suggesting it has been rejected as well.
This test is both exciting and potentially useful for high-purity applications. For instance, sample introduction systems used by ICP-MS instruments in silicon wafer VPD analysis often utilize molded PFA instead of PTFE because an acid leak could potentially harm sensitive instrumentation.
Electrical Properties
PFA (Perfluoroalkoxy alkane) was designed as a stronger and more resilient alternative to PTFE. As an inert, physiologically harmless, and strong-yet-flexible fluoropolymer material, PFA offers excellent resistance against high temperatures and harsh chemical environments. Furthermore, melt processing capabilities allow PFA parts to be made in injection molding or blow molding processes, offering much cleaner processes than the traditional machining and compression molding used with PTFE components. PFA features similar electrical properties to its counterpart, with nearly identical dissipation factors and dielectric strength up to four times higher.
PFA, like PTFE, makes an excellent material to use for applications involving highly corrosive processes due to its superior resistance and temperature stability. Operating temperatures can range between -268degC and +260degC while its Limiting Oxygen Index exceeds 95.
PFA stands out as the perfect material to be transparent at temperatures up to 500degF, unlike PTFE, which turns milky white at these temperatures. Furthermore, PFA features excellent chemical resistance, superior crack and stress resistance, ten times greater flex life, lower permeation rates, and very low friction for ideal performance in extreme high- or low-temperature settings with high-stress environments such as semiconductor processing equipment and laboratory equipment; in particular heat exchangers; also often used as an inline chemical heater and Pulsar point-of-use exchangers by Process Technology as PFA is used as a lining material in chemical equipment to minimize friction during high- or low-temperature conditions with high-stress environments like semiconductor processing equipment used by Process Technology; PFA is often found as part of these systems as part of this technology’s TIH inline chemical heaters and Pulsar point-of-use exchangers as lining material; for instance, inline chemical heaters feature PFA lining material used as well.
Applications
As far as specific applications go, PTFE makes an excellent non-reactive lining material for pipes, containers, and tanks that house chemicals that may corrode. Furthermore, its nonstick properties allow it to reduce friction in machinery while improving energy consumption.
Fluoropolymers have proven invaluable to the semiconductor industry due to their chemical inertness, resistance to high-concentration mineral acids, and wide temperature working range. They were among the first adopters of these materials for fluid management systems.
PTFE sheets are widely utilized as measuring heads in optical radiometry (e.g., illuminance meters and UV radiometers) due to their ability to diffuse light evenly over a broad spectrum of wavelengths, remaining consistent from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths.
Both PTFE and PFA boast excellent abrasion resistance, so both materials can be used to create protective liners that protect delicate equipment from physical contact. If your application requires high purity levels, however, PFA would likely be the superior choice as it doesn’t leach impurities from leaching onto other materials and produces very few cations or anions.
Fluoron offers injection molding and screw extrusion techniques to create cost-effective PFA parts without incurring the upfront investment required to develop tooling for machining applications. We then seam them together for stronger bonds for seamless semiconductor production applications.
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