LOZENGE AS SEMICONDUCTOR

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The person beyond you is behind you, the person away from you is in front of you!! This is because of electronics. The entire human world is virtually linked, and electronics play a critical role in this. Electronics were born in the early 1900s, and their development accelerated when semiconductors were discovered in the 1930s. The third Industrial Revolution is credited with the invention of semiconductors. We would still be in the mechanical world if semiconductors did not exist. 

In recent years, diamond has been recognized as a semiconductor. Diamond is no longer restricted to being just an ornamental gem. Diamonds can meet the needs of a niche market for robust high-power devices. The semiconductor is the king in electronics and Lozenge as its new queen. The word "Lozenge" stems from the old French word "Losenge," which refers to a diamond's characteristic form.

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Let us look at what distinguishes diamonds from other materials that have revolutionized the digital world.

Are you confused about how a diamond is a semiconductor?

Diamond is more than just a hard, clear stone due to its excellent qualities. Compared to other commonly used semiconductors, synthetic diamond is referred to as a "promising material" for a variety of semiconductor devices.

Diamond semiconductors may appear to be too expensive to combine with electronics, nevertheless, the industry is artificially generating electronics-grade diamonds rather than mining diamonds. Methane gas is processed in a microwave plasma vapor deazapurine (MOCVD) reactor to create synthetic diamonds. This procedure yields a flawless diamond substrate suitable for the fabrication of active and passive semiconductor devices. 

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Not every diamond is suitable for semiconductor application. The considerable potential of diamond devices over conventional device technology can only be realized if certain critical objectives are met, including:

• Access to a high-quality, ultra-pure semiconductor material in large quantities.
• The ability to dope material in a regulated manner to provide carriers.
• Ability to manipulate tiny layers and structures.

Where can a diamond be utilized?

Diamond, as a semiconductor material, leads to new possibilities in the field of electronics. Diamond can be used in various applications, some of them are listed below

• Faster supercomputers
• Radar and communications systems that are cutting-edge
• Hybrid and electric automobiles are extremely efficient
• Electronics in extreme environments
• Aeronautics and avionics of the future
• Aircraft and propulsion that are lighter, faster, and more capable
• Consumer electronics that are lighter and more durable
• It has the potential to be utilized as a sensor

Diamond: The future

• One of the earliest diamond-based power devices to be described was a high-temperature diode, in which the working temperature of a Schottky diode structure was pushed to 1000°C. Si-based Schottky material was placed onto a homoepitaxial B-doped diamond surface to form the diode structure.

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• According to a recent paper, in an unmanned spacecraft, the mechanisms necessary to cool traditional silicon devices at 1250 C might be significantly eliminated if working temperatures of 3250 C were acceptable. These cooling systems can take up to 60% of an unmanned satellite's bulk. Diamond has higher carrier mobilities than other wide-gap semiconductors at both room and increased temperatures, which is noteworthy in this regard as a result, one of the goals of diamond-based high-temperature electronics development is to improve current driving capability and speed over SiC devices. 

• Diamond's electrical properties allow for the creation of high-power switches with extremely low dynamic losses. It should be possible to design 1.7kV and 6.5 kV switches that operate at several kilohertz and have currents suitable for traction applications. Such devices will be far superior to current technology, as switching losses will be reduced from 3% to an estimated 1%, dramatically reducing motor losses caused by harmonics. Furthermore, diamond's excellent thermal properties allow for the creation of devices capable of operating at temperatures as high as 400°C. An active cooling system will no longer be required, resulting in increased overall system efficiency.

• The RF power device for a 5G base station is as high as the heat flux at the surface of the sun. Poor energy efficiency is one consequence of not being able to manage heat flux very well in state-of-the-art electronics. For example, even though the battery has the same capacity, a Tesla S goes twice the distance of an Audi eTron in part due to more efficiency. Diamond is the ultimate heat-flux substrate that outperforms silicon and SiC.

• A diamond semiconductor is uniquely positioned to corner the high-voltage, high-current power electronics market, similarly, diamond is uniquely positioned to replace vacuum tubes, which is still common today in high-power wireless communication like broadcasting stations, communication satellites, and radar. None of the other semiconductors, like GaN, SiC, Si, GaAs, or InP are similarly suitable for high-power wireless communication.

• Diamond is the perfect material to use in transistors that need to withstand cosmic ray bombardment in space or extreme heat within a car engine, in terms of performance and durability.

• Diamond materials will revolutionize many electronic and electrical applications such as high-power switches at power stations, high-frequency FETs, lasers, semiconductor devices, thermal management products, and LEDs. It extends device lifetime as they can run cooler. In modern cars, more than 150 components are made using a variety of diamond tools.

Challenges of the diamond as a semiconductor

Diamond usage is likely to be limited in the immediate future because diamond semiconductors are still in the research and development phase; consequently, investment, fabrication facilities are not expected. As a result, prices will remain high, putting emerging market participants at a disadvantage.

At normal temperature, diamond does not become a semiconductor because the "carriers" are frozen out, hence it is mostly an insulator. Instead, the diamond must be heated to temperatures between 500 and 700oC. This is not practical in a regular human environment, but diamond semiconductors could be a suitable choice if you wanted to send a space probe to Venus, which has such temperatures (which has historically destroyed silicon-based computers in space probes).

As the lure of "smaller and faster" continues to influence tech marketing, the number of diamond-based consumer electronics may increase as silicon's limits are discovered – and found wanting. Before it comes to an end, the era of diamond-driven technology will have well exceeded early expectations of quantum computers and semiconductors.

By,

Basavaradhya M C

Harshitha Y S

Mohith S

R Manasa