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Way back when I was in high school (late 90s), my father worked for Kobe Steel's research center in NC. It's long since been closed now, but the summer between
by cowpewter 15y ago
Way back when I was in high school (late 90s), my father worked for Kobe Steel's research center in NC. It's long since been closed now, but the summer between my junior and senior year, I got to do an internship there.
One of the many things they did was research into diamond-substrate computer chips. One of my tasks over the summer was taking resistance and capacitance measurements across tiny ICs (maybe it was just transistors? It was a long time ago) printed on diamond chips. They're beautiful - iridescent/holographic like the surface of a CD only translucent.
Years later when Kobe shut that research division down, my father gave me a gift of one of the now useless prototype chips. I also have a few lab-grown diamonds made there - raw plate shaped crystals, nothing like what you picture when you hear the word 'diamond'.
When I get home later, I'll see if I can dig out that chip and post a photo of it.
Edit:
Flickr set, pics of the chip and a piece of lab-grown diamond. My camera and photography skills really don't do the chip justice. Please ignore my horribly bitten fingernails. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowpewter/sets/72157627258486490/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowpewter/sets/7215762725848649...