My Lab Created Diamond

While lab created diamonds are most well known for their applications in jewelry, there are many other uses for these fascinating products of modern science. One of the most exciting among these uses is the possible applications in the next generation of computer chips!

Diamonds have several properties that lend themselves extremely well to use in processors, which are the heart and brain of any modern PC. Importantly, they can withstand a much higher amount of heat than silicon, which is the material that all computer chips are made out of today. With the ever increasing power of modern computers leading to a corresponding rise in the amount of heat produced, this quality will be critical in the next generation of processors.

It has been almost 7 years since researchers solved the final piece of the puzzle by mixing synthetic diamonds with boron to allow the creation of diamond transistors, and although researchers in the lab have tested processors running at speeds most computer owners could never dream of, widespread commercial use hasn’t seemed to be getting much closer. This is partly because of the low cost and wide spread use of Silicon to produce these parts, as opposed to diamond – which is still significantly more expensive, even with modern production methods.

Another innovative way to use diamonds in computing has been discovered at Melbourne University though, which combines two of the biggest buzz words in breaking PC technology – the diamond quantum computer! This system works using light, rather than electricity to transfer data and perform operations, and although this tech is in very early stages, it is riveting stuff for those looking into the solution to the boundaries caused by the physical limitations of Silicon.