Diamond Foundry unveils 200mm single-crystal diamond wafer for chip cooling
The sample is unpolished and would need more processing before chipmakers could use it, and the company says a 300mm wafer may be possible before 2030.
Lab-grown diamond firm Diamond Foundry has unveiled what it calls the first 200mm single-crystal diamond wafer, a size close to what chipmakers use for mature process nodes. Single-crystal diamond conducts heat far better than copper while staying electrically insulating, which could help tame the hotspots that rising AI chip power is creating. The company says a 300mm wafer now looks achievable before 2030, though the shown sample is unpolished and would need further processing before chipmakers could use it. Diamond Foundry credits decades of earlier research on the scaling problem, and it faces rivals such as Akash Systems, De Beers and Frore Systems, all pursuing diamond-based cooling.
Why it matters
The wafer points to a possible route for removing heat from increasingly powerful AI chips, where hotspots are a growing concern. For now it is a milestone in size rather than a finished product, and it still needs processing before chipmakers could use it. The company's claim of a 300mm wafer before 2030 is a forward-looking goal, and it sits among rivals such as Akash Systems, De Beers and Frore Systems, which are all pursuing diamond-based cooling.
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