REPORT ON:

Diamond is the Ultimate Semiconductor

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology
Sector-22, Rohini, New Delhi-110086
May 2015

SUBMITTED BY:-

TUSHAR MITTAL
09514804912
EEE-123

One of the more intriguing prospects in the semiconductor world is diamond.

Diamond has many properties that are superior to silicon. Diamond has a
higher bandgap than silicon, can tolerate higher temperatures, and has the
potential to form transistors that switch faster than silicon. Ralph Merkle notes
that:
Diamond excels in its electronic properties. Fundamentally, it lets us move
charge around much faster before things stop working. [snip] diamond
transistors can operate at much higher temperatures because diamond has a
larger bandgap than other materials (particularly silicon) [snip]
Because diamond has a wider bandgap, it shorts out at a proportionally
higher temperature than silicon.
Diamond also has greater thermal conductivity, which lets us move heat out of
a diamond transistor more quickly to prevent it from getting too hot.
[snip]
Finally, electrons (and holes) move with different speeds through different
materials, even when the electric field is the same. Again, electrons and holes
in diamond move faster than in silicon.
Because diamond transistors can be hotter, are more easily cooled, can
tolerate higher voltages before breaking down, and electrons move more
easily in them; they make better transistors than other materials. Diamond
would be ideal for electronic devices if only we could manufacture it
inexpensively and with precisely the desired structure.

Except for most natural blue diamonds, which are semiconductors due to
substitutionalboron impurities replacing carbon atoms, diamond is a good electrical insulator, having
a resistivity of 100 Gm to 1 Em[28] (1011 to 1018 m). Natural blue or blue-gray diamonds,
common for the Argyle diamond mine in Australia, are rich in hydrogen; these diamonds are not
semiconductors and it is unclear whether hydrogen is actually responsible for their blue-gray color.
[17]
Natural blue diamonds containing boron and synthetic diamondsdoped with boron are p-type
semiconductors. N-type diamond films are reproducibly synthesized by phosphorus doping
during chemical vapor deposition.[29] Diode p-n junctionsand UV light emitting diodes (LEDs, at
235 nm) have been produced by sequential deposition of p-type (boron-doped) and n-type
(phosphorus-doped) layers.[30] Diamondtransistors have been produced.

With silicon pushed to its limits, what

will power the next electronics
revolution?

The semiconducting silicon chip launched the revolution of electronics and

computerisation that has made life in the opening years of the 21st century scarcely
recognisable from the start of the last. Silicon integrated circuits (IC) underpin practically
everything we take for granted now in our interconnected, digital world: controlling the
systems we use and allowing us to access and share information at will.
The rate of progress since the first silicon transistor in 1947 has been enormous, with the
number of transistors on a single chip growing from a few thousand in the earliest integrated
circuits to more than two billion today. Moore's law that transistor density will double every
two years still holds true 50 years after it was proposed.
Nevertheless, silicon electronics faces a challenge: the latest circuits measure just 7nm wide
between a red blood cell (7,500nm) and a single strand of DNA (2.5nm). The size of individual
silicon atoms (around 0.2nm) would be a hard physical limit (with circuits one atom wide), but its
behaviour becomes unstable and difficult to control before then.
Without the ability to shrink ICs further silicon cannot continue producing the gains it has so far.
Meeting this challenge may require rethinking how we manufacture devices, or even whether
we need an alternative to silicon itself.
Speed, heat, and light
To understand the challenge, we must look at why silicon became the material of choice for
electronics. While it has many points in its favour abundant, relatively easy to process, has
good physical properties and possesses a stable native oxide (SiO2) which happens to be a
good insulator it also has several drawbacks.
For example, a great advantage of combining more and more transistors into a single chip is
that it enables an IC to process information faster. But this speed boost depends critically on
how easily electrons are able to move within the semiconductor material. This is known
as electron mobility, and while electrons in silicon are quite mobile, they are much more so in
other semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and indium
antimonide.
The useful conductive properties of semiconductors don't just concern the movement of
electrons, however, but also the movement of what are called electron holes the gaps left
behind in the lattice of electrons circling around the nucleus after electrons have been pushed
out.

Moores law still holds true after 50 years. Credit: shigeru23, CC BY-SA
Modern ICs use a technique called complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) which
uses a pair of transistors, one using electrons and the other electron holes. But electron hole
mobility in silicon is very poor, and this is a barrier to higher performance so much so that for
several years manufacturers have had to boost it by including germanium with the silicon.
Silicon's second problem is that performance degrades badly at high temperatures. Modern ICs
with billions of transistors generate considerable heat, which is why a lot of effort goes into
cooling them think of the fans and heatsinks strapped to a typical desktop computer
processor. Alternative semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC)
cope much better at higher temperatures, which means they can be run faster and have begun
to replace silicon in critical high-power applications such as amplifiers.
Lastly, silicon is very poor at transmitting light. While lasers, LEDs and other photonic devices
are commonplace today, they use alternative semiconductor compounds to silicon. As a result
two distinct industries have evolved, silicon for electronics and compound semiconductors for
photonics. This situation has existed for years, but now there is a big push to combine
electronics and photonics on a single chip. For the manufacturers, that's quite a problem.
New materials for future
Of the many materials under investigation as partners for silicon to improve its electronic
performance, perhaps three have promise in the short term.

The first concerns silicon's poor electron hole mobility. A small amount of germanium is already
added to improve this, but using large amounts or even a move to all-germanium transistors
would be better still. Germanium was the first material used for semiconductor devices, so really
this is a "back to the future" move. But re-aligning the established industry around germanium
would be quite a problem for manufacturers.
The second concerns metal oxides. Silicon dioxide was used within transistors for many years,
but with miniaturisation the layer of silicon dioxide has shrunk to be so thin that it has begun to
lose its insulating properties, leading to unreliable transistors. Despite a move to using rareearth hafnium dioxide (HfO2) as a replacement insulator, the search is on foralternatives with
even better insulating properties.
Most interesting, perhaps, is the use of so-called III-V compound semiconductors, particularly
those containing indium such as indium arsenide and indium antimonide. These semiconductors
have electron mobility up to 50 times higher than silicon. When combined with germaniumrich transistors, this approach could provide a major speed increase.
Yet all is not as simple as it seems. Silicon, germanium, oxides and the III-V materials are
crystalline structures that depend on the integrity of the crystal for their properties. We cannot
simply throw them together with silicon and get the best of both. Dealing with this
problem, crystal lattice mismatch, is the major ongoing technological challenge.
Different flavours of silicon
Despite its limitations, silicon electronics has proved adaptable, able to be fashioned into
reliable, mass market devices available at minimal cost. So despite headlines about the "end of
silicon" or the spectacular (and sometimes rather unrealistic) promise of alternative materials,
silicon is still king and, backed by a huge and extremely well-developed global industry, will not
be deposed in our lifetime.
Instead progress in electronics will come from improving silicon by integrating other materials.
Companies like IBM and Intel and university labs worldwide have poured time and effort into this
challenge, and the results are promising: a hybrid approach that blends III-V materials, silicon
and germanium could reach the market within a few years. Compoundsemiconductors have
already found important uses in lasers, LED lighting/displays and solar panels where silicon
simply cannot compete. More advanced compounds will be needed as electronic devices
become progressively smaller and lower powered and also for high-power electronics where
their characteristics are a significant improvement upon silicon's capabilities.
The future of electronics is bright, and it's still going to be largely based on silicon but now that
silicon comes in many different flavours.

The Rise of Diamond

Semiconductors and the Future
of Tech

ds are still a girls best friend, but in todays technology-driven world, they have become
so much more than eye candy and have increasingly been used as a replacement for
silicon.
With any industry, its all about supply and demand. So what are the demands that have
prompted this diversification both in diamond use as well as in diamond creation?
The limitations of silicon-based technology is one of the biggest factors in the rise of
diamond-based technology. The element silicon has been the primary semiconductor in
electronics for over half a century. Unfortunately, silicon semiconductors come with a
few key issues. Firstly, theres the issue of heat. Silicon semiconductors require a great
deal of heat management which in turn results in major energy waste. Secondlythe size
and speed of electronic devices are limited by the performance capabilities of silicon. At

this point, it is difficult if not impossible to create smaller or faster devices while still
relying on silicon semiconductors.

The Power of Diamonds as Semiconductors

Diamonds have always been powerful. But these ones arent powerful as in you must
be filthy rich to be able to afford something like this, powerful, but more as in wow
these can really help change the future powerful. Diamond semiconductors are the
answer to the issues of heat and cooling, as well as size and efficiency. Diamonds can
withstand greater heat while still providing superior performance; what heat is generated
is more easily and efficiently cooled. Electronic devices that rely on a diamond
semiconductors can be made faster and smaller, thanks to diamonds higher voltage
tolerance and ability to provide 1 million times more electrical current than silicon
counterparts.
The Potential for Supercomputer Utility

Consumer-driven, mass-marketed electronics arent the only devices that

could see great technological leaps thanks to a diamonds-for-silicon
replacement. Diamonds could also enable scientists to create
supercomputers with greater storage and greater power. These quantum
computers would be capable of solving complex problems that are out of
reach for current technology.
Of course, semiconductors and supercomputers are only two of the nonaesthetic uses for diamonds. As one of the hardest minerals on Earth,
diamonds are becoming more and more useful for processing other
materials, either by cutting, grinding or polishing. Other tools and materials

such as windows, surgical instruments, blades and phonograph needles all

have diamond-reliant variations.
Longevity and Faster Production Time

The increased technological demand for diamonds also has ties to the
growingmanmade diamond industry. Lab-grown diamonds take far less time
to create than their natural counterparts, while still providing the durability
and thermal conductivity found in Earth-grown diamonds. Chemical Vapor
Deposition (CVD) stacks carbon atoms on top of a small diamond seed,
creating precious gems in mere months instead of millennia. In addition to
fast-tracking the diamond formation process, CVD diamonds are also free of
the negative stigma of blood or conflict resource diamonds.

Silicon is still the base for a majority of the tech on the market today, and
that may never completely change. Not every man, woman or child has need
of a quantum computer. However, as the lure of smaller and faster
maintains a constant influence in tech marketing, it may be that the amount
of diamond-based consumer electronics will rise as silicons limits are found
and found wanting. The era of diamond-driven technology has only just
begun and will far surpass early dreams of quantum computers and
semiconductors before it draws to a close.

CVD-Grown Synthetic
Diamonds

Dating back to the 19th century, there have been many claims for creating diamond in a lab.
For many years, the conventional wisdom was that diamond would form only under
conditions of high pressure and high temperature (HPHT). Indeed, the first commercially
available manmade diamond was produced at high pressure and high temperature by
General Electric in 1956. HPHT growth imitates natural diamond formation, but with
carefully selected input materials to catalyze crystal growth. Today, billions of carats of
diamonds are manufactured annually by the HPHT process, mostly for industrial
applications.
In 1954, two years before the announcement of HPHT synthesis, a patent was issued for
another type of diamond growth: the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. Early
reports of gem-quality CVD synthetic diamond were greeted with skepticism and not verified
until many years later. In the late 1980s, scientists with a highly advanced understanding of
the technique discovered how to reproducibly grow diamond using the CVD process.
The CVD process is quite different from natural diamond formation. It produces diamond
from a heated mixture of a hydrocarbon gas (typically methane) and hydrogen in a vacuum
chamber at very low pressures. Under normal circumstances, heating this mixture at such
low pressures would produce graphite or some other non-diamond form of carbon. But in a
CVD growth chamber, some of the hydrogen is converted to atomic hydrogen, which
promotes diamond formation since diamond is more stable in this environment. The
conversion of molecular hydrogen to atomic hydrogen is accomplished through methods
such as the application of microwave energy, an electric discharge, or hot filaments. When
atomic hydrogen is present in the gas phase, two chemical processes occur:
(1) Graphite and other non-diamond carbon react with the atomic hydrogen and evaporate
in a newly formed gas phase.
(2) Atomic hydrogen reacts with the original hydrocarbon gas (methane) to form a highly
reactive carbon-hydrogen species. When this species decomposes, it gives up its hydrogen
to form pure carbon: diamond.
To produce a gem-quality synthetic diamond, a diamond seed crystal (natural, HPHT, or
CVD in origin) is introduced into the gas mixture, at an elevated temperature of 900 to
1200C. The activated carbon-hydrogen species travels across the surface of the diamond

seed until it finds an available carbon atom, and then attaches itself to this seed atom. The
seeded growth is now one carbon atom thicker. This process repeats itself endlessly to
replicate the crystal structure of the diamond seed crystal in three dimensions.