Technology
Electronic devices used diamond-based chips would have numerous benefits, however have actually been tough to make– a brand-new method including sticky tape might alter that
By Alex Wilkins
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This thin wafer of diamond is likewise really versatile
Nature, DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-024-08218-x
A brand-new method to make ultra-thin diamond wafers utilizing sticky tape might assist produce diamond-based electronic devices, which may one day be a beneficial option to silicon-based styles.
Diamond has uncommon electronic homes: it is both a great insulator and permits electrons with particular energies to move with little resistance. This can equate to being able to manage greater energies with higher effectiveness than traditional silicon chip styles.
Producing working diamond chips needs big and extremely thin wafers, comparable to the thin silicon wafers utilized to develop modern-day computer system chips, which have actually shown difficult to produce.
Now, Zhiqin Chu at the University of Hong Kong and his associates have actually discovered a method to produce exceptionally thin and versatile diamond wafers, utilizing sticky tape.
Chu and his associates initially implanted nano-sized diamonds in a little silicon wafer, then blew methane gas over it at heats to form a constant, thin diamond sheet. They then produced a little fracture on one side of the connected diamond sheet, before removing the diamond layer utilizing routine sticky tape.
They discovered that this peeled diamond sheet was both very thin, at less than a micrometre, much thinner than a human hair, and smooth enough to permit the type of engraving methods utilized to produce silicon chips.
“It is extremely similar to the early days of graphene when Scotch tape was utilized to produce the very first monolayer of graphene from graphite. I simply never ever would have envisioned the principle being used to diamond,” states Julie Macpherson at the University of Warwick, UK.
“This brand-new edge-exposed exfoliation approach will be an enabler for a wide variety of gadget styles and speculative techniques,” states Mete Atatüre at the University of Cambridge. One location it might be especially beneficial for is providing higher control in quantum gadgets that utilize diamonds as sensing units, he states.
The diamond membranes Chu and his coworkers can produce have to do with 5 centimetres throughout, which reveals that the technique works as an evidence of concept, states Andrea Ferrari at the University of Cambridge, however it is still smaller sized than the bigger 20-30 centimetres that is basic to numerous wafer procedures, and it isn’t clear whether the brand-new technique can be scaled up, he states.
The wafers produced likewise seem polycrystalline, which are less smooth and routine than monocrystalline diamond, and this might restrict its usage for some applications, states Macpherson.
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