DF creates world’s first diamond wafer

Jan 19, 2024

diamond foundryDiamond Foundry Inc. (DF) has proudly declared the successful development of the world’s inaugural 100mm single-crystal diamond wafer. This groundbreaking achievement is the culmination of a three-decade-long endeavor by the DF team, involving the intricate development of various technologies.

These technologies include establishing a single crystal lattice on scalable substrates, cultivating large-area diamond ingot growth, implementing diamond singulation technology, and employing precision-surface processing.

Notably, prior to this innovation, no wafer-sized diamond existed anywhere on Earth. To overcome this challenge, DF had to pioneer the creation of the mother of all diamond wafers, which would serve as the basis for further production.

Leveraging the intricacies of diamond heteroepitaxy, a highly complex technology, DF succeeded in generating the first-ever wafer consisting of a single crystal of diamond. It is crucial to distinguish this achievement from previous simulant forms, which were essentially compressed powder diamonds lacking the unique properties of a single crystal.

In terms of size comparison, even the renowned Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough diamond ever mined on Earth, falls short with its largest dimension measuring 5.89cm-over 4cm smaller than DF’s groundbreaking diamond wafer.

These single-crystal wafers hold immense significance as they form the foundational basis for today’s most advanced technologies. Reflecting on history, the creation of the first silicon wafer in 1959 played a pivotal role in defining the modern way of life as we know it today.

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