Diamond heatsink provide the stability and outstanding thermal conductivity needed to dissipate heat

Heat can be damaging to the semiconductor devices that produce it, unless it is allowed to flow away from those devices. Solid-state devices such as GaN transistors continue to advance in terms of increased power densities at higher operating frequencies, but they also generate large amounts of heat in small areas, and their performance levels and reliability will be limited by how quickly and completely the heat can be dissipated. Quite simply, higher-power levels are possible with a large-signal semiconductor when the right heat-spreader material is used. In terms of thermal management, diamond is that optimum heat-spreading material, offering thermal conductivities up to 10× those of other commonly used heat-spreading ceramics.

Commercial GaN transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) have been fabricated on various heat-spreading base substrates, such as silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC), with fair results in terms of thermal management. Still, the heat spreading capabilities of these materials can put a ceiling on the maximum output power that can be achieved from a GaN-based solid-state device. The thermal conductivity of SiC, at 400 W/m-K, has been considered suitable for dissipating heat from GaN devices. Single devices capable of high power levels at RF/microwave frequencies have been developed on GaN-on-SiC processes for commercial, industrial, and military applications.

Modern electronic systems often fail due to lack of adequate thermal management (Fig. 1). The choice of materials for a thermal management design and the methodology of the application are essential to minimizing channel temperatures and ensuring reliable long-term device operation. Until now, GaN-on-SiC devices have demonstrated the most effective management of heat in high-power discrete transistors and monolithic-microwave-integrated-circuit (MMIC) components. Still, the heat-spreading capabilities of SiC are limited and typically the maximum power dissipation of GaN-on-SiC devices is derated to protect long-term reliability. To achieve higher power levels with less heat, especially for circuits with densely packed active (heat-generating) GaN devices, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond enables much higher power densities than conventional approaches.We provide wafer-level diamond, diamond heat sink, GaN on diamond, Diamond on GaN and other products to provide you with the best diamond thermal management solution