Commercial methods of manufacturing synthetic diamond evolved out of a number of technical developments of the 1950s. From a scientific perspective, it is interesting to note that both principal processes by which synthetic diamond is currently manufactured come from that decade.

Today, the high-pressure-high temperature (HPHT) diamond synthesis process remains the dominant manufacturing process for industrial diamond. HPHT, a process which mimics the way in which natural diamonds are formed by geophysical processes deep in the earth, has allowed synthetic diamond to become a key material in the cutting and abrasive business, being widely used in the machine tool industry, oil and gas drilling, mining, quarrying, and construction.

In contrast, synthesis of diamond by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) uses a low pressure process. This technology opens the possibility of making new shapes, coatings, films and qualities that can exploit diamond’s unique properties in a breath-taking array of industries. The process relies on decomposing carbon-containing gas molecules, such as methane, acetylene or carbon dioxide at sub-atmospheric pressure and depositing diamond as a film on a substrate. Today there are four main CVD methods used to create diamond films: the hot filament method and three distinct plasma CVD processes. The importance of CVD methods is that they do not require the huge pressures required for HPHT synthesis and can create diamond that can be tailored for a wide range advanced engineering applications.