Consortium checks out semiconducting diamond

Dynex Semiconductor has been awarded a grant by the UK Department of Trade and Industry to develop technologies for novel power electronic components based on semiconducting diamond.

Dynex Semiconductor has been awarded a grant by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to develop technologies for novel power electronic components based on semiconducting diamond.

This Carbon Power Electronics Programme (CAPE) is a development project being undertaken by a consortium comprising Element Six, Dynex Semiconductor and the University of Cambridge.

The programme, which will run until September 2006 and aims to develop the basic technologies for advanced high power electronic components using electronic grade diamond, is being funded under the DTI Link Basic Technologies for Industrial Applications (BTIA) programme.

Dr Paul Taylor, Chief Technical Officer at Dynex, said: "We are very pleased and honoured to have this opportunity to work on a ground breaking project with Element Six and the University of Cambridge.

When applied to power components, diamond has major advantages over other materials such as silicon or silicon carbide.

We already have target applications that will be more competitive using this new technology, and we aim to produce prototypes to confirm these benefits.

This could prove to be a rare opportunity to implement a market defining technology".

"Semiconductors are materials that can be switched electronically from being insulating to conducting, and are used extensively in devices that control electric power", Gehan Amaratunga, Professor of Electronic Engineering at the University of Cambridge explained.

"A limitation with today's semiconductors such as silicon is that high voltage or high temperature can cause the material to switch its conducting state in an uncontrolled manner.

Diamond is one of a class of "wide-bandgap" semiconductors, with these materials much higher energies are required to change the conducting state.

So compared with silicon, diamond will retain electronic control at high voltage and high temperature.

Add to this the best thermal conductivity of any material, and the highest carrier mobility of any wide band gap semiconductor, and diamond offers the possibility of electronic devices with far superior performance than any known today".

"Its fair to say that diamond has long been recognised as the ultimate wide-bandgap semiconductor, but until recently it has not been considered a viable material for electronics", said Dr Steve Coe, R and D Manager at Ascot-based Element Six.

"At Element Six, we have devised a unique and innovative capability for synthesising electronic grade diamond, and the prospects for diamond semiconductor components are now very real.

By bringing together Element Six, Dynex Semiconductor and the University of Cambridge we have a unique opportunity to introduce a new technology to the field of power electronics.

This is one of a number of exciting opportunities that we are pursuing to commercially exploit the extreme properties of diamond in detector and electronic applications".

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