News: Suppliers
13 June 2024
Element Six and Orbray partner to deliver high-quality wafer-scale single-crystal synthetic diamond
CVD-based synthetic diamond materials firm Element Six of Oxford, UK (E6, part of the De Beers Group) and Tokyo-based Orbray Co Ltd (which makes precision jewel parts, DC coreless motors, fiber-optic components, and medical devices) have announced a strategic collaboration to deliver high-quality wafer-scale single-crystal (SC) synthetic diamond.
Future industrial applications across telecoms, defense and artificial intelligence (AI) will place unprecedented demands on power and energy efficiency, and enabling these technologies to reach their full potential requires novel material solutions, say the firms. Due to properties including high breakdown field and high thermal conductivity, synthetic diamond promises to be the go-to material platform in the future. However, unlocking these industrial opportunities can only be realised if a reliable supply of wafer-scale SC diamond is available.
Element Six was the first company to build and develop a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) platform consistent with large-area, uniform polycrystalline diamond growth up to 150mm in diameter and, later, pioneering electronic-grade SC diamond development and production, commercializing its first SC product range in the 2000s. Recently, E6 opened a CVD facility in Gresham, Oregon, USA, enabling sustainable, scale production of high-quality SC synthetic diamond products.
In parallel, Orbray pioneered the development of a unique heteroepitaxial process to grow SC diamond on cost-efficient sapphire substrates, demonstrating milestone results of SC deposition up to 55mm diameter.
The partnership between the firms will combine Orbray’s approach to scaling SC CVD diamond with E6’s large-area deposition system and expertise in making high-purity SC diamond, to deliver a reliable supply of high-quality, wafer-scale, single-crystal diamond for key applications, including 6G wireless components, advanced power and RF electronics, sensing, thermal management, and quantum devices.
Through this strategic collaboration, Orbray and Element Six will work together to produce wafer-scale high-quality SC diamond, expanding their core competency in diamond technology ahead of anticipated industrial opportunities.
Element Six’s patented technology and expertise in high-quality SC CVD diamond and large-area synthesis technology is already being exploited in atomic particle detection and researched in novel applications such as RF transistors, quantum sensing and quantum-secure communication. Orbray’s heteroepitaxial sapphire substrate approach is advancing the R&D of larger SC wafer-scale diamond substrates and, simultaneously, production of heteroepitaxial SC CVD diamond for novel industrial applications. As a result, by combining these unique capabilities, it is reckoned that the partnership is poised to deliver SC diamond wafer technology at sizes and levels of quality beyond what is possible currently.
“The strategic collaboration between Element Six and Orbray represents the next milestone to unlock a new era of single-crystal diamond applications, delivering unprecedented competitive advantage and new heights of performance to an ever-growing range of global customers,” says Orbray’s president & CEO Ms Riyako Namiki. “Element Six has already accelerated key advances in a wide range of novel applications, enabling significant milestones such as the identification of Higg’s boson and the advancement of optics technology for metrology in the pharmaceutical industry,” she adds.
The collaboration follows Element Six’s selection for a United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program LADDIS (Large Area Device-quality Diamond Substrates) aimed at developing new ways of fabricating device-quality diamond substrates for use in military applications.
Element Six selected for US Department of Defense LADDIS program
