Synthetic diamond company Element Six is set to lead a project under the US Department of Defense UWBGS (Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductors) program.

Established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the program’s aim is to oversee the development of high-quality ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials for use in substrates, device layers, and junctions.

Materials that fall under the UWBG umbrella include gallium oxide, aluminum nitride, boron nitride, and diamond and are needed for the development of advanced semiconductors as they allow devices to operate at much higher voltages, frequencies, and temperatures than conventional semiconductor materials, such as silicon.

Diamond, for example, has superior heat conduction and wide electronic bandgap properties, providing the potential to lower the size, weight, and power consumption of semiconductors. As part of the program, Element Six – a subsidiary of De Beers – will develop four-inch device-grade single-crystal diamond substrates using the company’s chemical vapor deposition polycrystalline diamond and single-crystal diamond synthesis.

“Industrial diamond has disrupted multiple markets since its first scale synthesis in the 1950s, and I am confident that technology breakthroughs in UWBGS will help unlock another 70 years of opportunities in the semiconductor industry," said Professor Daniel Twitchen, chief technologist at Element Six.

In addition to developing diamond substrates, the company’s plus-four-inch polycrystalline diamond wafers are already being used as optical windows in EUV lithography or in thermal management applications for high-power density silicon and gallium nitride semiconductor devices.

Last year it was reported that the company was making artificial diamonds for use in quantum computers being developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS).