It still amazes me that the rare shiny rocks humanity has appreciated for thousands of years also turn out to have amazing properties even compared to the synthetic materials we are now capable of creating. It's still the hardest material we have measured. It is the best thermal conductor, even though it's an electrical insulator.
"DF's production of SCD wafers is as green as any tech manufacturing gets: converting the greenhouse gas methane into diamond crystal using zero-emission energy."
The average cow releases about 250lbs of methane a year. I know press releases get more traction when there is mention of green tech, but it's a bit much to imply that that the production of these wafers will sequester methane in a meaningful way.
If I'm reading this correctly it's two or threefold. Faster switching times, which both increases max speed and reduces power consumption. Avoids flaws due to silicon doping, presently we add ions to silicon to get P or N type junctions and they've found a way to get P type junctions using "2D Hole Gas" which is basically a thin layer of voids inside the bulk diamond crystal after treatment and avoids a category of flaws that affect silicon yields. Third, and this is speculation, but diamond has a way higher thermal conductivity and lower thermal expansion coefficient, so it can likely withstand higher temps and conduct heat away faster.
I think the better question is: what real world applications need these qualities enough to justify the cost? They mention cooling application, I don't buy that anyone is that interested in reducing hotspots in their chips even if it makes them last longer.
I had a family friend working on diamond semiconductors in the 90s. The application at that time was for sensors located in the hot section of a jet engine.
The higher the voltages it can handle, the faster it can switch efficiently, and the better the thermal performance, the wider its potential applications in power electronics.
It still amazes me that the rare shiny rocks humanity has appreciated for thousands of years also turn out to have amazing properties even compared to the synthetic materials we are now capable of creating. It's still the hardest material we have measured. It is the best thermal conductor, even though it's an electrical insulator.
It is a very good thermal conductor, but not the best. At low temperatures, copper is better. At very low temperatures, helium is much better.
Superfluid helium's maximum thermal conductivity is roughly 100x diamond's maximum!
Neat! At around the temperature of liquid water, it's still about five times as good as copper.
"DF's production of SCD wafers is as green as any tech manufacturing gets: converting the greenhouse gas methane into diamond crystal using zero-emission energy."
The average cow releases about 250lbs of methane a year. I know press releases get more traction when there is mention of green tech, but it's a bit much to imply that that the production of these wafers will sequester methane in a meaningful way.
Asionometry video on the topic: Why Diamond Transistors Are So Hard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLmd5vL0zmk)
Diamonds are incredibly useful,
And logical, now that we can produce them easily enough.
This, is one of many uses of the rocks.
So... how long does the hydrogen gas layer last before it all seeps out?
I believe these are hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to the carbon atoms on the surface of the diamond.
The hydrogen is not a gas.
Why do people still think they need to mess with scrolling on their websites?
I still don't know how to even make a silicon transistor.
Make a Point Contact Transistor at home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmotkjMSKnI
Isn't the power consumption needed to create pure/no-blemish lab diamonds so great, that this wouldn't be feasible to scale.
Lab diamonds are used in huge quantities (ie. By the bucketful ) for making cutting tools like saws and drill bits.
I believe the main difficulty is making large and pure diamonds. Making small low purity diamonds is cheap and easy to scale.
massive crushing pressure is not the only way to create diamond particles.
do you mind explaining more
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
And no, blog writers, it is not heralding "The Diamond Age".
Recommended reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age
Way better to recommend reading the book instead of the Wikipedia page about the book.
Okay this is cool research
just one tiny tiny microscopic question...
why would someone use diamond wafer costing 1000x more than a silicon wafer??!
:)
If I'm reading this correctly it's two or threefold. Faster switching times, which both increases max speed and reduces power consumption. Avoids flaws due to silicon doping, presently we add ions to silicon to get P or N type junctions and they've found a way to get P type junctions using "2D Hole Gas" which is basically a thin layer of voids inside the bulk diamond crystal after treatment and avoids a category of flaws that affect silicon yields. Third, and this is speculation, but diamond has a way higher thermal conductivity and lower thermal expansion coefficient, so it can likely withstand higher temps and conduct heat away faster.
I think the better question is: what real world applications need these qualities enough to justify the cost? They mention cooling application, I don't buy that anyone is that interested in reducing hotspots in their chips even if it makes them last longer.
I had a family friend working on diamond semiconductors in the 90s. The application at that time was for sensors located in the hot section of a jet engine.
> why?
>> 50x faster switching
It's hard to say which applications will benefit the most, but orders of magnitude improvement tend to enable qualitative shifts downstream.
Not to mention, 1000x is just the cost right now while the tech is new.
The higher the voltages it can handle, the faster it can switch efficiently, and the better the thermal performance, the wider its potential applications in power electronics.
Hmm, power electronics is often so big, that might need a lot of diamond and could get pricy, who knows.
Very low power chips might be the main application, as there is already a huge market (laptops and phones).
Or maybe there will be a whole set of new rf chips, profiting from the clock speed.