Following extensive technological research, the Diamond Foundry team has unveiled the world's first 200 mm single-crystal diamond wafer, challenging the semiconductor industry's conventional assumptions about diamond size and officially launching single-crystal diamond into the era of large-format wafers. Diamond is the most thermally conductive substance found in nature, and it also offers high mechanical strength, excellent electrical insulation, and outstanding optical properties. However, widespread adoption in the semiconductor field had long been hindered by limitations in large-size fabrication technology. This 200 mm wafer is compatible with the wafer-size standards of existing mature semiconductor manufacturing processes, and certain existing semiconductor equipment can be adapted to process diamond materials with adjustments. The team also plans to produce a 300 mm single-crystal diamond wafer—matching the dimensions of today's most advanced semiconductor wafers—before 2030. Large-size single-crystal diamond can be used for thermal management in high-performance AI chips, addressing the computing-power cooling crisis, and can also be applied in fields such as high-power power electronic devices, next-generation high-frequency communication equipment, and nitrogen-vacancy center qubits for quantum computing. At present, the field still needs to resolve subsequent engineering challenges, including precision processing of large-size diamond, uniform doping, and lithographic patterning. This materials breakthrough has opened up entirely new possibilities for the development of semiconductors and related fields.
