Recently, the six elements of science and technology director Adrian Wilson accepted the exclusive interview with British media AzoM, detailed introduces the characteristics of the synthetic diamond and diamond applications in many industrial fields.
Presenter Gary Thomas: please introduce element six basic situation of the company, as well as the company's main business.
Adrian Wilson: element six company was founded in the last century 60 s, is De Beers (De Beers) a member of the group, mainly engaged in the production of synthetic diamond superhard materials research and development, has a vast domestic and international markets. At present, the element six total assets of $500 million, 10 countries around the world have production equipment, business services for more than 5000 clients.
GT: element six focus in r&d and production of hard material, so can you detailed introduction of the concept of "hard" and related products?
AW: like synthetic diamond and cubic boron nitride, polycrystalline diamond, these unique engineering materials, such as tungsten carbide is called superhard materials; They are, because of its superior performance and widely used in many industrial fields.
For example, the molecular structure of the synthetic diamond is very special, which makes the diamond into the "universal" materials; Composed of tetrahedron structure compact arrangement of carbon atoms and make it so hard to have than any substance in the world are higher hardness.
Synthetic diamond because of its high hardness, can be used to do the ideal of oil and gas drilling tools, long service life, high wear resistance. Secondly, the diamond thermal conductivity is very high, is available in electronic device cooling device.
In addition, diamond internal micro electric current through the, can also produce ozone, used to develop new type of strong disinfectants and environment-friendly bleach. The above is just the tip of the iceberg for synthetic diamond advanced application.
GT: also called the diamond, diamond for diamond, people always will contact jewelry together, its sleek appearance. For the synthetic diamond, it and what are the special performance, plays an important role in industry application?
AW: synthetic diamond hardness is very high, which makes it in machinery, grinding applications has incomparable advantages, at the same time also has the following features:
The most broad spectrum, high heat conductivity, optical projection wide electronic band gap, high heat resistance, electrical insulation, good chemical inert.
Heat conductivity of diamond can be used in the electronics, semiconductor manufacturing; High power resistance of synthetic diamond can be used for laser plasma extreme ultraviolet carved system of optical lenses.
As electrode, diamond can be used in wastewater treatment and the strong oxidant production; Based on application, artificial diamond sensing material, like biochemical sensors have stable electrochemical properties, can provide higher sensitivity, reaction degree and washability.
Synthetic diamond are also extended to the latest application of quantum fields: quantum secure communication, quantum computation, magnetic/electric field induction, etc.
GT: what are the similarities and differences between synthetic diamond and natural diamond?
AW: first of all, the molecular structure of the two. The main difference is that a synthetic diamond is made by the artificial method, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and synthetic method of high temperature and high pressure (HPHT).
HPHT (high pressure method of preparation of diamond, it is necessary to the growth of more than 55000 standard atmospheric pressure and high temperature conditions. Diamond, prepared by CVD method requires the corresponding substrate materials and gas mixture; As the carbon source, mainly methane and hydrogen by ionization methods make the chemical activity of free radicals.
Today, element six has maturely use diamond CVD method of production, has a stable control on diamond impurities and features, and the growth of large area diamond on various substrate materials. At the same time also can adjust according to different application requirements composition of preparation of diamond.
GT: in terms of a cooling device, can be more detailed to introduce the function and role of diamond?
AW: most of the high thermal conductivity of materials with good electric conductivity. However, although the synthetic diamond with high thermal conductivity, the electrical conductivity is small enough to ignore. This feature is ideal for electronic device cooling. Effective heat dissipation not only prolong the service life of the electronic device, also does not affect its performance.
In semiconductor technology, the artificial diamond cooling device can effectively prevent the silicon materials and other semiconductor materials fever too. Reference to Moore's law, the electronic equipment is smaller, the greater the power, the heat treatment ability is weaker. In view of this, diamond thermal conductivity and heat dissipation of efficient application is particularly important.
GT: for the above equipment, element six why choose to produce diamond CVD method, this method is how to affect the ultimate performance of diamond cooling device?
AW: in the six elements, we use the patent of microwave CVD process for synthetic diamond growth. CVD method can make the diamond growth under control, minimized impurity components to reduce, at the same time also can have control to give diamond many important performance. This method can ensure that produce highly consistent, controlled performance of diamond, and applied in many devices, including heat dissipation of high power electronics components.
GT: diamond for element six gallium nitride semiconductor technology, can give a detailed introduction, this technology is in the field of how to apply to specific industry?
AW: diamond gallium nitride semiconductor wafer is of similar products in the company's first commercial and technological achievements. The technology is mainly used for high power, high temperature and high frequency transistor circuit manufacturing. Gallium nitride heat emission of diamond material can achieve high efficiency and energy saving, reduces the encapsulation working temperature of the device, to solve the electronic equipment caused by the heat dissipation problem nearly 50% of the failures.
Gallium nitride kong crystal slice is currently one of the most ideal thermal conductive materials in the world. In fact, the thermal conductivity of gallium nitride polycrystalline CVD diamond at room temperature for more than 5 times that of copper, effectively reduces the working temperature, saves the entire system cost, but also greatly enhanced the power of rf devices. In power amplifier and under the conditions of microwave/millimeter wave circuit, gallium nitride diamond technology, used to reduce the working temperature of the equipment at the same time to keep output unchanged.
GT: synthetic diamond what breakthrough in the field of quantum technology?
AW: not long ago, element six synergy Dutch delft university of technology to achieve the two pieces of diamond quantum entanglement between the atom shape defect.
A technological breakthrough for diamond quantum networks, quantum Repeaters and long distance information transmission has important significance, it can change the way of information processing, information networks and computer cannot solve the problems in current to provide the new processing system.
Quantum entanglement technology is the use of light and microwave and synthetic diamond defects. That technology has often said diamond nitrogen space center (NV).
Nitrogen vacancy defects can make the quantum properties of light beam from the readout under microscope. Through near the NV defect form small crystals and the electric field is used to adjust the light beam, two NV delft team make emit two photons, which is difficult to distinguish between these photons contain NV defects related to quantum information, then do further processing to realize the two defects of entangled quantum mechanics.
The discovery is to us under the level of science and technology of trillions of control of a single atom in diamond crystal shape defects of a certain scientific research ability. This not only helps us to develop a quantum networks of processing information, will realize quantum computer research and development in the future.
GT: in the future of element six business development plays an important role in diamond technology what?
AW: use of diamond and boron inert conduction ability to produce highly reversible electrochemical sensor.
Use the poles in the electrochemical cell boron diamond instead of corrosive liquid, to reduce the harmful chemicals, achieve environmental protection battery production.
High-end audio equipment in the dome type diamond high-frequency amplifier components research and development.
Use single crystal diamond with nitrogen vacancy center micro magnetometer and through the strength and direction of the magnetic field sensor.
GT: in the process of using synthetic diamond which typically encountered problems, element six is how to solve?
AW: for some new applications, our clients are often not familiar with, don't know how to use. To this, element six will provide application support, including the basic technical advice, on-site technical guidance, etc.
GT: for synthetic diamond in the future development in the field of engineering and electronics, what do you think about?
AW: along with electronic devices' demand for more and more power density, heat treatment problem will increase; And synthetic diamond especially in terms of thermal conductivity of rf devices and power device applications will play an increasingly important role.
For non diamond grinding purposes, we are very bullish on diamond in optics, sensors and the application of water treatment, because the diamond can provide unparalleled business value for our customers.
On the diamond grinding purposes, as more new composite materials processing, the customer in appearance design requirements will be higher, diamond as a lower wear rate of materials will continue to play its superior grinding performance, provides the high-quality service for the customer. (compile the "Synthetic Diamonds And Electronic Applications - in An Interview With Adrian Wilson")
