News: Suppliers
24 October 2023
Element Six selected for US Department of Defense LADDIS program
CVD-based synthetic diamond materials firm Element Six of Oxford, UK (E6, part of the De Beers Group) has been selected as a performer for the LADDIS (Large Area Device-quality Diamond Substrates) program, set up by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
LADDIS aims to develop new ways of fabricating device-quality diamond substrates with ultimate applications that include radio-frequency and power electronics to operate in the harsh environments of military applications.
As a pioneer of demonstrating and synthesizing electronic-grade single-crystal CVD diamond, E6 will use its expertise in the development of large-area single-crystal diamond substrates, leveraging its developed large-area synthesis platform, to realize diamond substrates measuring 50mm in diameter. E6 first developed electronic-grade CVD diamond as an integral part of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) Large Hadron Collider monitoring systems, used in the experiments that enabled the discovery of the Higgs Boson Particle. In addition, by combining this electronic-grade intrinsic diamond with solving the challenge to achieve very high boron doping (>5x1020cm-3), E6 — in collaboration with ABB — demonstrated >4keV diamond Schottky diodes. Since then, E6 has invested in the development and manufacturing of single-crystal diamond and has registered over 2000 patents in 40 countries. In addition to its facility in Santa Clara, California, USA, E6 has also built and commissioned what was believed to be the world’s largest operating single-crystal diamond factory, in Portland, Oregon.
“Element Six has a 20-year track record of introducing disruptive single-crystal diamond-enabled solutions to the market, helping to unlock a range of new applications in sensing, optics and semiconductors,” says chief technologist Dr Daniel Twitchen. “We are looking forward to leveraging our expertise, alongside Raytheon and E6’s long-term academic partner professor Martin Kuball, to further develop this world-leading diamond semiconductor technology.”
Diamond-based semiconductors have the potential for unprecedented power density, speed and performance; but there is a lack of industrial-size single-crystal diamond wafers that are needed to commercialize device. By working with its network of partners as part of the LADDIS project, Element Six aims to overcome these challenges.
E6 has already successfully demonstrated the scaled synthesis of polycrystalline diamond with diameters greater than 100mm. These are already being adopted in passive thermal management applications of high-power-density silicon (Si) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor devices, used for example in satellite communications, electronic warfare (EW) and telecom infrastructures.
The LADDIS program has partnered E6 with aerospace & defense manufacturer Raytheon of Arlington, VA, USA, which makes high-power GaN RF devices for defense applications, and Martin Kuball, professor of Physics at the UK’s University of Bristol, who has pioneered the thermal characterization techniques that can be used to assess the produced material of the group’s synthesis work.
II-VI licenses single-crystal diamond technology from Element Six
