Diamond Wafer Substrates for Thermal Management of High-Performance Electronic Multi-Chip Modules

Diamond has been used as a heat sink material in critical device applications for many years. Only recently, however, has the promise of major reductions in the price of diamond allowed its consideration for use in electronic thermal management applications requiring many tens of grams, rather than a milligram or so, of material. It is indeed fortunate that this is the case, since the “new wave” in electronics packaging, multi-chip modules (MCMs), because of their very high densities of high-speed integrated circuit chips, confronts the packaging engineer with power densities very difficult to manage without diamond. Because of the combination of high thermal conductivity and insulating nature, diamond is an ideal MCM substrate material, not only for reducing chip temperatures in conventional 2-D MCM configurations but in making it practical to implement ultra high performance, 3-dimensionally interconnected MCM packaging approaches.

Diamond and its laboratrial synthesis have been extensively studied and improved in the last decades. As diamond becomes more feasible as an engineering material, many industrial and technological uses begin to be economically attractive. CVD diamond polycrystalline films already reached all the properties of perfect IIa single crystal diamonds. Taking this into account, CVD diamond is still a better heat management material when compared to conventionally applied metals, and can be used in different levels of quality and physical properties to match specific application demands.

CSMH focuses on the R&D and production of diamond wafers, and has created an efficient and precise machining method for diamond atomic-level surfaces based on plasma-assisted polishing, diamond wafer Ra<1nm, diamond heat sink thermal conductivity 1000-2000W/m.k, and GaN on diamond, Diamond on GaN, diamond-based aluminum nitride and other products. We will keep pursuing the innovation-driven development strategy in the future, offering our customers products of high quality and reliable performance while contributing the rapid development of the global semiconductor industry.