Science & Technology
Technology Platform
Diamond is a material that has exceptional electronic properties. Unlike more familiar materials used for electronic devices such as gallium arsenide and silicon, diamond combines high charge carrier mobility with extreme thermal conductivity, high dielectric strength and a wide band gap. This means that diamond has potential in high-power, high-frequency devices that could out perform devices fabricated in other electronic material.
The exploitation of diamond as an electronic material has become possible because of breakthroughs in diamond synthesis technology, specifically chemical vapour deposition, CVD, that has enabled single crystal diamond to be manufactured with the high purity and consistency required of advanced electronic applications.
One of the requirements for electronic device design is finding a suitable dopant that can turn intrinsic diamond into a semiconductor. For diamond, practical active device concepts are based on unipolar designs.
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