Diamond Foundry makes the first 200mm single-crystal diamond wafer

[WarpCore]

Diamonds could help keep tomorrow's AI chips cool. Tom's Hardware reports that lab grown diamond company Diamond Foundry claims to have made the world's first 200mm single crystal diamond wafer

That is roughly the size chip factories use for older processes. The aim is to use diamond as a cooling material for semiconductors, since it conducts heat at least five times better than copper by the article's estimate

The company says a 300mm wafer, matching leading edge chip factories, looks possible before 2030. The sample shown is unpolished, though, and needs more processing before chipmakers could use it

Diamond Foundry was founded in 2012, and chief executive Martin Roscheisen says the company has worked on the scaling problem for around 25 years. Another firm, Akash Systems, received CHIPS Act funding in 2024 for GaN on diamond technology

Heat is one of the biggest limits on modern chips, so a material that pulls heat away far better than copper could be a big deal. Making large single crystal diamond wafers has been extremely hard, so this is a notable step. It will take years before it appears in everyday hardware, though

Could diamond cooling become common in PCs one day? And how big a problem is heat for chips today?

Diamond Foundry creates worldwww.tomshardware.com

[Janette_63]

Unpolished samples are a long way from production. Polishing diamond is notoriously difficult. That step might be harder than growing it. Cost will decide adoption

Industrial processes need refining. Early costs will be high