Diamond transistors closer than I thought

[Sxotty]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17954
Wunderchu posted the topic with a link to a write up paraphrasing this article
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

If youguys did not have a knowledge abot the current state of affairs it is very much closer to a reality than I thought. It seems that we will not have to resign ourselves to a technological slow down afterall at least for another 30 years.

The (wired) article is really interesting I cannot recommend it enough.

The only question I have is does anyone think that any of this is fabrication? People in the past have stated they figured out ways to do things like this to get large some of capital and then dissapeared, but it seems pretty real to me in all respets. The yellow diamonds in Fl I am sure are real, and the other sounds real also, but is slightly more questionable.

The diamond industry is in fact even more concerned about gems made using chemical vapor deposition than it is about Gemesis stones, though Gemesis poses a more immediate threat. The promise of CVD is that it produces extremely pure crystal. Gemesis diamonds grow in a metal solvent, and tiny particles of those metals get caught in the diamond lattice as it grows. CVD diamond precipitates as nearly 100 percent pure diamond and therefore may not be discernible from naturals, no matter how advanced the detection equipment.

But the greatest potential for CVD diamond lies in computing. If diamond is ever to be a practical material for semiconducting, it will need to be affordably grown in large wafers. (The silicon wafers Intel uses, for example, are 1 foot in diameter.) CVD growth is limited only by the size of the seed placed in the Apollo machine. Starting with a square, waferlike fragment, the Linares process will grow the diamond into a prismatic shape, with the top slightly wider than the base. For the past seven years - since Robert Linares first discovered the sweet spot - Apollo has been growing increasingly larger seeds by chopping off the top layer of growth and using that as the starting point for the next batch. At the moment, the company is producing 10-millimeter wafers but predicts it will reach an inch square by year's end and 4 inches in five years. The price per carat: about $5...."I think I can identify it," he says hopefully. "It's too perfect to be natural. Things in nature, they have flaws. The growth structure of this diamond is flawless."

In summary if this is to be useful there will need to be a bunch of seperate seeds going to make starting material for the wafers once there is a stock of many starting wafers and many machines going the amount of diamond that could be produced is staggering.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Check here too. As you say, it's a lot closer than you think, but the two main companies have been keeping a very low profile because they don't want to go to war with DeBeers until they are ready, and for the most part don't want to compete in the real diamond market. They've created a synthetic diamond market, or are just selling synthetics in order to finance their work on diamond semiconductors.

 

[Simon F]

Of course, the real joke is that diamonds are actually relatively common and the prices are artificially inflated.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Of course, the real joke is that diamonds are actually relatively common and the prices are artificially inflated.

Yes, DeBeers has had a strangle hold for years, and buys up any excess in order to keep prices high, keeping a surplus. This is one of the reasons that the two artificial diamond companies have kept a low profile and even now have effectively created their own markets which do not compete directly with DeBeers. They really could be risking their lives when this much money is involved, especially when you consider what happens around conflict diamonds.

Personally I've never understood the value assigned to something just because it's difficult to find or dig out of the ground. It's just a case of people willing to pay for it because it looks pretty, but I wonder if it will still be the case when everyone has diamond running the processors in their washing machines or car engines.

 

[_xxx_]

Status symols.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

You make it sound as though their lives are in danger. Are they?

Of course, the real joke is that diamonds are actually relatively common and the prices are artificially inflated.

Yes, DeBeers has had a strangle hold for years, and buys up any excess in order to keep prices high, keeping a surplus. This is one of the reasons that the two artificial diamond companies have kept a low profile and even now have effectively created their own markets which do not compete directly with DeBeers. They really could be risking their lives when this much money is involved, especially when you consider what happens around conflict diamonds.

Personally I've never understood the value assigned to something just because it's difficult to find or dig out of the ground. It's just a case of people willing to pay for it because it looks pretty, but I wonder if it will still be the case when everyone has diamond running the processors in their washing machines or car engines.

 

[Simon F]

You make it sound as though their lives are in danger. Are they?

Not in the Australia diamond fields, but nasty things happen in other parts of the globe: Conflict Diamonds

Google will supply more links etc

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

You make it sound as though their lives are in danger. Are they?

People were threatened if you belive the interviews that Wired and BBC did. People in a many countries all along the chain of the diamond business stand to lose a lot of money if artificial diamonds supplant natural diamonds at a fraction of the price.

Good for everyone else, but not good for that tiny minority making high profits from artificially manipulating the diamond market.

 

[Leto]

Can they make transistors as small or even smaller than the current silicon?

 

[nelg]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9293

 

[Sxotty]

We cannot comment in that one though nelg

Anyway I hadn't seen it.

How is it no one does anything about DeBeer's thouhg? I thought monopolies were bad...

Anyway I am looking forward to this quite a lot.

 

[London Geezer]

Blame the gangsta bling bling freaks.

 

[sytaylor]

If this signals the end of blood Diamonds I'd be VERY happy about that.

 

[London Geezer]

If it signals the end of bloody Nelly 50Cent Eminem Ja-Rule Jay-Z East London council flat suburbs freaks, I'll have sex with a girl.

 

[sytaylor]

If it signals the end of bloody Nelly 50Cent Eminem Ja-Rule Jay-Z East London council flat suburbs freaks, I'll have sex with a girl.

...................

Ok 1 min silence is over, lucky its remeberance day I'd have screamed , besdies Hip Hop ain't all that bad even if the fashion is horrible.

 

[London Geezer]

If it signals the end of bloody Nelly 50Cent Eminem Ja-Rule Jay-Z East London council flat suburbs freaks, I'll have sex with a girl.

...................

Ok 1 min silence is over, lucky its remeberance day I'd have screamed , besdies Hip Hop ain't all that bad even if the fashion is horrible.

That's the thing. The fashion is what's wrong with Hip Hop. Then the guns. Then the incomprehensible lyrics. Then the total boredom.

 

[sytaylor]

Which is why Hip Hop is dying... only those who change will survive, like the neptunes or Outkast.