Why Kisco Parylene

What is Parylene?
Many years of scientific and engineering research went into the development of Parylene coatings. In 1947, a physical chemist in Great Britain, Michael Szwarc, was experimenting with the common solvents in the xylene family. He discovered that the pyrolysis of xylenes, under vacuum formed very polymer films with very interesting properties. In the late 1960s, William Gorham, at Union Carbide, devised an efficient method of depositing these films on surfaces. This ushered in age of Parylene coatings deposited by Chemical Vapor Deposition systems. Parylene film is an inert linear chained polymer. It is essentially a long, high molecular weight chain of Carbon, Hydrogen and sometimes Chlorine, Fluorine and other compounds attached to an aromatic carbon ring structure.


Why would I use Parylene coatings?

  1. Parylene films are deposited on substrate surfaces by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) at room temperature. This allows the films to be relatively thermally stress-free which differs greatly from other polymer film formation which occur at elevated temperatures. It also has very little effect on the substrates being coated. If a substrate is stable under medium vacuum, it can be coated conformaly with Parylene
  2. Parylene films are pin-hole free at thicknesses above 0.5 microns. They are truly conformal, they uniformly coat the entire surface even into deep crevices since they form on a molecular level.
  3. Parylene films are USP class VI biocompatible, chemically inert, and resistant to most solvents, strong acids and alkalis. Parylene is an excellent coating for body implants.
  4. The CVD process for Parylene coating uses no solvents and is environmentally friendly. The Parylene films are also extremely pure.
  5. Parylene films are optically transparent and can be used for sophisticated optical lenses.
  6. Parylene has one of the lowest dielectric constants of any material. It is one of the best insulators known.  Parylene 1/1000 of an inch thick will withstand potentials of at 5000 volts or more.
  7. Parylene is approved for Defense and Aerospace electronics. The films conform to military, electronics and aerospace specification such as Mil-I-46058C and IPC-CC-830C.
  8. Parylene films have better abrasion and cut resistance than Fluoropolymers and they have excellent dry lubricious properties.
  9. Parylene films perform well under thermal stress conditions. They remain intact under a thousand thermal stress cycles varying from -150 deg. C to +150 deg C in short periods of time (24 hours). They also remain stable for years at continuous operating temperatures above 175 deg. C. There are Parylene films that will remain strong at continuous temperatures exceeding a few hundred degrees C. Kisco Conformal Coating developed one parylene dimer (diX-SF) which can withstand up to 450 deg. C.
  10. Parylene films are hydrophobic, salt resistant, resilient, tough, and chemically inert and have reasonably low coefficients of static and dynamic friction. They protect materials from almost all corrosive environments. No known solvent or chemical can remove parylene once it has been deposited.
  11. After testing and clinical trials, many hundreds of bodily intrusive electrosurgical devices and implants coated with Parylene films have been approved by the US FDA over the years.
  12. Parylene protects and preserves sensors, inertial guidance systems, spacecraft electronics, aircraft systems, medical devices, biological implants even the preservation of antiquities and irreplaceable documents. From aerospace to archeology, Parylene films fit the criteria.


Why Kisco Parylenes?
Simple, Kisco makes it own Parylenes, Parylene N, C, D, A, AM, SR, SF and many more to come in the future. Kisco not only makes the purest Parylenes on earth, we make our own CVD machines to deposit the Parylene coatings. With operations in many countries around the world, we can meet your requirements, whether they are scientific, engineering, manufacturing or geographical logistics.


Kisco, since 1921, has been at the forefront of materials science and polymer materials. We have our own scientists, research facilities, manufacturing facilities and cooperative programs with major science universities around the world. Please browse our web site and contact us with your needs. If you need it coated with specific functional requirements, we can help.