Luxembourg-registered synthetic diamond materials firm Element Six (a member of the De Beers Family of Companies) has developed a new thermal grade of diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). DIAFILM TM130 has a thermal conductivity in excess of 1300W/mK and is available in both metallized and unmetallized wafers form.

Similar to Element Six’s material grades in its DIAFILM TM range, TM130 offers full isotropic heat spreading in both planar and through-plane directions. Enhancing its portfolio to offer more options addressing unique thermal management needs, Element Six now provides five material grades spanning five levels of performance (1000-2000W/mK).

“CVD diamond is the most thermally conductive material at room temperature, far surpassing the thermal conductivity of copper,” says Adrian Wilson, director of Element Six Technologies. “With this new offering, we're continuing to build our extensive portfolio of thermal grade materials to meet the needs of those in the microelectronics and electronics packaging industry,” he adds. “Recognizing a ‘one-size fits all’ approach is not effective, we are committed to providing a full range of options and specifications to effectively address thermal management challenges, including specific requirements for surface flatness, low roughness and metallization.”

Element Six says that, due to its combination of properties including high thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, electrical insulation, low weight and chemical inertness, CVD diamond is uniquely suited to thermal management in applications such as advanced packaging. In this role, CVD diamond enables system size reductions, improved reliability and the opportunity to design higher-power systems within an existing module footprint.

With a focus on customizability, Element Six’s solid thermal products are available up to 3mm thick and in diameters up to 140mm that can be laser cut to any required size. Metallization solutions also enable die bonding with low thermal barrier resistance, consistent with industry-standard soldering and brazing.

* At the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society’s 47th International Symposium on Microelectronics (IMAPS 2014) in San Diego, CA, USA, on 15 October Element Six gave the presentation ‘Advanced Thermal Dissipation in GaN-on-Diamond Transistors’ (developed in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame), discussing the thermal barriers that stand in the way of achieving the intrinsic performance potential of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, including details of a recent solution that replaces GaN's entire host substrate — such as silicon (Si) or silicon carbide (SiC) — with a synthetic diamond substrate (resulting in a more than 40% reduction in peak device temperature).