In the thermal bottleneck problem, excessive heat generated during the operation of the electronic device adversely affects component performance. To solve this thermal bottleneck, only methods and materials that can dissipate heat from electronic devices have been developed.
The unusual thermal properties of diamond films have spurred scientists to integrate diamond films into heat sinks for electronic components. However, the deposition temperature of diamond film growth exceeds 800 ° C, which in turn makes the method very infeasible.
Researcher Sumant said, "Our focus is to grow diamond films at the lowest possible temperature; if the temperature can be lowered to 400 degrees Celsius, it is entirely possible to integrate the diamond film with other semiconductor materials."
By changing the deposition process of the diamond film, Sumant and his colleagues have been able to reduce the temperature to around 400 ° C and adjust the thermal properties of the diamond film by controlling the diamond grain size. This research results in the direct integration of diamond with graphene and gallium nitride, two important materials.
According to Sumant, diamond has better thermal conductivity than silicon and silicon oxide, and the latter two are commonly used to make graphene devices. Now, the heat removal performance is greatly improved, and the diamond-based graphene material can withstand greater current density.
In another study, using the same low-temperature grown diamond film method, Sumant combined the film with gallium nitride, which is commonly used in LED manufacturing. The experiment deposited a diamond film of 300 nm thickness on a gallium nitride substrate, which has extraordinary thermal conductivity. Since the difference in temperature of an integrated circuit affects the performance of the entire electronic device, Sumant claims that the significance of this research is unusual.
“Our experiment has in common that we have discovered new ways to efficiently dissipate heat and save energy.†Sumant said that these experimental processes are very important for industrial manufacturing and help solve some of the traditional limitations in semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing. The development of a new generation of electronic equipment has paved the way.
The study, published in Nano Letters and Advanced Functional Materials, was completed by Sumant in collaboration with Professor Alexander Balandin of the University of California and their students, Jie Yu, Guanxiong Liu and Dr. Vivek Goyal. The project was supported by a fund from the National Energy Energy Office's Basic Energy Science Program. (Compiled from 'Diamond-based materials brighten the future of electronics' Translation: Wang Xian)
Diamond materials illuminate the future of electronic equipment
Abstract The Argonne National Laboratory from the US Department of Energy recently said that two of their latest studies revealed some of the new features not previously discovered in nanocrystalline diamond films. By reducing the "thermal budget," these new features of diamonds will greatly improve the performance of integrated circuits. &n...
The Argonne National Laboratory from the US Department of Energy recently said that two of their latest research revealed some of the new features that were previously undiscovered in nanocrystalline diamond films. By reducing the "thermal budget," these new features of diamonds will greatly improve the performance of integrated circuits.