Growing diamonds

"Silicon is so twentieth century." That's what one PhD student at MIT says of silicon being used for computer chips. There is a certain plateau with silicon chips -- the element gets hotter the more energy the chips use, thus the chips break down and the speed of the processors is limited. So what's a better alternative? Diamonds.

One thing about diamonds is its high thermal conductivity. They can withstand higher temperatures, frequencies, current, and voltage (a centimeter thick diamond plate can endure about 10 million volts). Actually, diamonds have the highest thermal conductivity of any material known. So why don't we use them for computer chips more often? It's much more expensive, of course, but it's also very hard to find two diamonds in nature that have the same exact properties for them to properly work for transistors. That's where chemical vapor deposition (CVD) comes in.

CVD is basically a fancy term for "growing diamonds." Scientists are now beginning to build diamonds atom by atom inside vacuum chambers. That way, every diamond will be the same, making it easier to use for chips.

It probably won't totally replace silicon, though. Some circuitries in computer chips call for specific types of semiconductors, a number of which can only be made with silicon. That's why many in the field believe that diamonds will in the future supplement silicon, replacing it in some applications and working with it elsewhere.

For more details check out the NOVA scienceNow clip. And here's how they make them: