Diamond Growth Using Liquid Phase Chemistry

Diamond exhibits physical properties that make it an ideal material from which to construct electronic devices. A major obstacle to the use of diamond as a naturally insulating thermal management material is the lack of a method for growing large area thin films of diamond at low temperature on other materials, such as finished integrated circuits. All existing high deposition rate diamond film growth techniques to date are prohibitively expensive for making diamond a general electronic or packaging material. In this program, Schmidt will establish diamond crystallization from the liquid phase to deposit broad area, low temperature diamond films for electronic materials. The proposed proprietary technique will provide an extreme nonequilibrium environment on a microscopic scale for the nucleation of diamond, using liquid phase chemistry techniques. The proposed technique, involving extremely simple techniques, will likely be immediately accessible to inexpensive and uncomplicated industrial scale-up and provide fast, low temperature single crystal diamond growth.