Proven and Developing New Technologies for Developing 100mm+ Single Crystal Diamond Substrates with Supporting Data

Availability and production capabilities in diamond are rapidly expanding. To enable next-generation diamond-based solutions, particularly in the quantum and semiconductor realms, WD Advanced Materials (“WDAM”), in cooperation with key industry collaborators, has developed new processes for the synthesis of large-scale single-crystal diamond wafers for electronic applications.

Through the D2 SCALE program under the DARPA LADDIS initiative, WDAM has proven the efficacy of the homoepitaxial ELO approach to diamond expansion, with a 400% increase in single-crystal substrate area. At the same time, industry-leading quality has been shown with ~4.5x10⁴ dislocation density, a reduction of 3 orders of magnitude from the initial source substrate and narrow, uniform x-ray rocking curves. Moreover, the D2 SCALE program has developed a CMP process capable of achieving sub-nanometer surface roughness with no polishing-induced sub-surface damage and thermal conductivity values of 2100 – 2400 ± 200 W/(mK) values - in excess of current commercially available substrates and verified by an independent laboratory. Leading off these results, WDAM has just kicked off the D100 SCALE program under the DARPA UWBGS program, expanding on these capabilities through multiple novel growth technologies and supported by both CMP and Reactive Ion Beam Etch (RIBE) polishing processes, as well as novel wafering technologies to support wafer sizes in excess of 50-100mm.
Through this talk, led by Chief Technology Officer John Ciraldo, WDAM will share third-party characterization data demonstrating exceptional material quality characteristics coupled with large substrate sizes, as well as providing details on the methods employed in D2 SCALE and the new technologies in development under D100 SCALE to achieve true device-grade substrates at 100mm+ scale. <!--![endif]----><!--![endif]----><!--![endif]---->