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What ever happened to processors made with synthetic diamond? If I recall correctly, diamond has incredible heat transmission capability, so diamond processors

by akeck 11y ago

What ever happened to processors made with synthetic diamond? If I recall correctly, diamond has incredible heat transmission capability, so diamond processors made at the same density as current silicon processors could run at higher (and hotter) clock rates.

DasIch 11y ago
Given that both diamond and graphene are both just carbon, what's the difference between the two approaches?
- gilleain 11y ago
  What does sharing a common element have to do with anything? They are allotropes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_carbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_carbon) - diamond, graphite, fullerenes, SWNT, etc all have very different properties.
  - DasIch 11y ago
    Well, I'm not a chemist or anything but I, maybe naively, thought that the properties would be similiar. More similar to each other than to silicon anyway. I mean it's similiarity that makes you think of carbon as an alternative to silicon rather than some other element, no?
    - marcosdumay 11y ago
      They have a similar resistance from electromigration, but nothing more. The atoms configuration dictate everything in organic chemistry. (And in inorganic too, but you rarely have alternative configurations there.)
    - scentoni 11y ago
      Diamond's electronic and optical properties are far more similar to those of silicon than they are to graphite, graphene, or other forms of carbon. Diamond and silicon are diamond cubic lattices with sp3 hybridization (tetrahedral), graphite and related planar allotropes have sp2 hybridization (triangular).
- arxpoetica 11y ago
  The article also mentions graphene. Carbon in different forms has different properties, so, in theory there could be something valuable about using synthetic diamond.
forgotpwagain 11y ago
I think one of the difficulties with diamond was that n-type doping was very difficult in the past. However, there have been a huge number of improvements in fabricating various diamond-based devices (driven primarily by the development of various color center in diamond for applications in quantum optics, quantum computing), so it's likely to become more plausible in the future. I don't know much about the relative performance of diamond transistors versus silicon transistors, so I can't say anything concretely about that. I could maybe see some sort of diamond solution being used as an add-on to current silicon technologies whereby the diamond helps enhance heat transport/cooling of the silicon device.

by akeck 11y ago

DasIch 11y ago

Given that both diamond and graphene are both just carbon, what's the difference between the two approaches?

gilleain 11y ago
What does sharing a common element have to do with anything? They are allotropes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_carbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_carbon) - diamond, graphite, fullerenes, SWNT, etc all have very different properties.
- DasIch 11y ago
  Well, I'm not a chemist or anything but I, maybe naively, thought that the properties would be similiar. More similar to each other than to silicon anyway. I mean it's similiarity that makes you think of carbon as an alternative to silicon rather than some other element, no?
  - marcosdumay 11y ago
    They have a similar resistance from electromigration, but nothing more. The atoms configuration dictate everything in organic chemistry. (And in inorganic too, but you rarely have alternative configurations there.)
  - scentoni 11y ago
    Diamond's electronic and optical properties are far more similar to those of silicon than they are to graphite, graphene, or other forms of carbon. Diamond and silicon are diamond cubic lattices with sp3 hybridization (tetrahedral), graphite and related planar allotropes have sp2 hybridization (triangular).
arxpoetica 11y ago
The article also mentions graphene. Carbon in different forms has different properties, so, in theory there could be something valuable about using synthetic diamond.

forgotpwagain 11y ago

I think one of the difficulties with diamond was that n-type doping was very difficult in the past. However, there have been a huge number of improvements in fabricating various diamond-based devices (driven primarily by the development of various color center in diamond for applications in quantum optics, quantum computing), so it's likely to become more plausible in the future. I don't know much about the relative performance of diamond transistors versus silicon transistors, so I can't say anything concretely about that. I could maybe see some sort of diamond solution being used as an add-on to current silicon technologies whereby the diamond helps enhance heat transport/cooling of the silicon device.