A computer is only as strong as its weakest physical parts. As we push more data through smaller devices at faster rates, circuit board components are being taken to their limit. Failure means fragging out or going up in a ball of flames.Silicon was the material that facilitated a total paradigm shift in information processing, but it can't conduct electrons fast enough to keep up with our insatiable info-appetites. As we round third base on a new computing future, the hardware industry has to keep up its end of the bargain. That’s led to a scorched-earth hunt for substances that can power the next phase of growth.
Advertisement
There isn’t a substance on this planet that can withstand and conduct and deliver energy flows like a diamond. The super material’s unreal ability to move electrons has made it the belle of the high-tech ball for five years running. But the punishing demands of computational quantum leaps have pushed diamonds to their semiconducting limits, too. Since ceilings can’t be a thing, scientists are "doping" diamonds to make them stronger, faster, and more efficient. But the yields are incremental.A joint research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is taking a radically different approach to the problem: elastic strain engineering. They’re breaking diamonds down to nano-size where they can then be physically stretched. This process opens up the internal bands through which energy can travel, and cranks their conducting power up exponentially. If strain engineering research continues to corroborate these findings, the impact will go far beyond personal computing. Almost every industry we hold dear will be rendered unrecognizable by today’s standards. To get a grip on the current situation though, here’s a quick tour through the many-sided world of diamonds. The high visibility of diamonds as consumer gemstones leaves the gargantuan enterprise industry mostly unnoticed. Only 20 percent of the mined diamonds on Earth become gemstones. These are glistening specimens with minimal impurities boasting an exquisite specific gravity of 3.52, meaning it weighs 3.52 times as much as an equal quantity of water. You know when you pack a snowball and it’s literally perfect in shape, density and hardness? Specific gravity is the Gemological Institute’s quantifiable equivalent of that. 3.52, chef’s kiss.Then there's industrial diamonds. These fit into two categories. The first is the other 80 percent of diamonds coming from mines. This is the side of the family no one talks to—a vulgar army of lumbering cloudy-eyed cousins, all literally named Bort. The other supply of industrial diamonds is synthetic, which are grown in carefully calibrated laboratory conditions.
A refracted industry
Advertisement
To put annual diamond production volumes into perspective, ~142 million carats or 63,000 lbs of gem-grade diamonds are mined each year. A carat of gem-grade diamond runs you about $6,000 but can climb as high as $29,000. That puts the value of the diamond jewelry market at around $76 billion per year.Industrial diamond production—Bort and synthetic—weigh in at ~5 billion carats produced per year, or 2.2 million pounds. A carat of Bort goes for $.05 - $.30 cents. The market for industrial diamonds sits in the vicinity of $1.79Bn. Given the unit cost, that’s a cumbersome transaction volume.So who is buying (and using) all this Bort??
"Poor predictable Bort, always picks rock"
Advertisement
And now we’re where we need to be.
The Mount Everest of electronic materials
Advertisement
The diamond band gap as an airport moving walkway
Advertisement