By, Sagar.

B 1EP09EC086

Contents:
Introduction What is a diamond chip?
1.What is a Carbon Nanotube? 2.Classification of Carbon Nanotube.

How is it possible? Properties of Diamond Invention of Diamond chip Carbon Chip Technology Diamond film Comparison of Diamond & Silicon chip Advantages ,Disadvantages and Application of Diamond chip Conclusion

Introduction:
Electronics without Silicon is unbelievable. Now a days, we are using Silicon for the manufacturing of

Electronic Chips.
But, it has many disadvantages , when it is used in power

electronic applications, such as bulk in size, slow operating speed etc.

Silicon chip, which has supplied several decades worth of

remarkable increases in computing power and speed, looks unlikely to be capable of sustaining this pace for more than another decade .

Contd
Carbon, a group IV element, has two

crystalline forms: 1. Diamond 2. Graphite

Diamond and graphite are two allotropes of carbon:

Carbon, Silicon and Germanium belong to the

same group in the periodic table.

They have four valence electrons in their outer shell.
Pure Silicon and Germanium are semiconductors in normal

temperature.

Contd
So in earlier days they were used widely for the

manufacturing of electronic components.

But later it was found that Germanium has many

disadvantages compared to silicon, such as large reverse current, less stability towards temperature etc.
So the industry focused in developing electronic

components using silicon wafers.

Now research people found that Carbon has more advantages

than Silicon.

What is a Diamond chip?

In definition, Diamond Chip or carbon Chip is an

Electronic Chip manufactured on a Diamond structural Carbon wafer. OR It can also be defined as the Electronic Chip manufactured using Carbon as the wafer.
The major component using this is Carbon Nanotube.

What is a Carbon nanotube?

Carbon nanotubes were discovered

in 1991.
It is a nano - size cylinder of carbon

atoms.
They are made of one or several

concentric walls in which carbon atoms Fig : Carbon nanotubes made step by step. are arranged in hexagonal pattern, measuring several tens of microns in length and less than a few nanometers in diameter.

Classifications of Carbon Nanotubes:

CARBON NANOTUBES

SINGLE WALLED (SWNT)

MULTI WALLED (MWNT)

Fig: SWNT structures.

ZIGZAG

ARMCHAIR

CHIRAL
Fig: MWNT structures.

Contd
SWNT :

The structure of a SWNT can be conceptualized by wrapping a one-atom-thick layer of graphite called graphene into a cylindrical form. The way the graphene sheet is wrapped is represented by a pair of indices (n, m) called the chiral vector. The integers n and m denote the number of unit vectors along two directions in the honeycomb crystal lattice of graphene. If m = 0, the nanotubes are called "zigzag". If n = m, the nanotubes are called "armchair". Otherwise, they are called "chiral".

Contd
MWNT :

Multi-walled nanotubes (MWNT) consist of multiple rolled layers (concentric tubes) of graphite. In the Russian Doll model, sheets of graphite are arranged in concentric cylinders. In the Parchment model, a single sheet of graphite is rolled in around itself, resembling a scroll of parchment or a rolled newspaper.

Properties of Diamond:
Following are the properties to be known before proceeding with diamond wafer :
Diamond is a good thermal conductor, but a good electrical

insulator. Diamond is an allotrope of carbon and it is the hardest material in nature with the carbon atoms arranged in tetrahedral lattice. It has small toughness. Diamond can also resist voltages up to around 200 volts, compared to around 20 volts for a silicon chip.

How is it possible ?
Pure diamond structural carbon is an electrical insulator, but

it can be made conducting by doping it with certain elements.

Doping is the process of adding impurities to an extremely

pure semiconductors for the purpose of modulating its electrical characteristics.

The various dopants used are :

1. Boron -> p type doping element. 2. Nitrogen -> n type doping element.

Contd
After doping diamond can act like a semiconductor. The doping process is similar in the case of Silicon chip

manufacturing.
But this process will take more time compared with that

of silicon because it is very difficult to diffuse through strongly bonded diamond structure.
Adding atoms of boron or nitrogen enables the

diamond film to conduct electricity.

Invention of diamond chip:

A Diamond semiconductor

operates on 8l GHz frequency and is more than twice the speed of Silicon devices.
Developed by the Nippon

Telegraph and Telephone Corporation(NTT),Japan.

CARBON CHIP TECHNOLOGY :

According to researchers, various structures based on

the element that sits just above silicon on the Periodic Table can surpass silicon's abilities in thermal performance, frequency range and perhaps even superconductivity.
Of the Carbon technologies, Diamond is probably the

closest [to commercialization] at this time.

Three-dimensional carbon-diamond offers 10 times

the heat dissipation of silicon.

Contd
Two-dimensional carbon--3-angstrom-thick

monolayers called graphene increases the performance by attaining 10 times the electron mobility of silicon.

Cyclotron orbit of graphene electrons.

Contd.
Likewise, one-dimensional carbon--1-nm-diameter

nanotubes--could solve digital silicon's speed woes.

Meanwhile, zero-dimensional carbon--60-atom, hollow

spheres of carbon called fullerenes--could answer silicon's inability to attain high-temperature superconductivity.

DIAMONDS ON FILM :
Wafers with polycrystalline films of diamond are being

proposed as higher-performance replacements for silicon-on-insulator wafers. Diamond transistors have also being proposed for next-generation collision-avoidance automotive radar systems that would operate well in adverse weather/temperature conditions.
Fig : Diamond RF MEMS switch (left) operates at higher frequencies than silicon but can be fabricated alongside the CMOS circuitry (right) driving it, enabling a single chip to handle both functions.

Contd
The two major hurdles faced for commercialization of

single-crystal diamond semiconductors are doping and scaling. 1. Doping : Very few dopants have been found than can introduce the lattice defects needed to change the material from an insulator to a semiconductor. 2. Scaling : The scaling problem refers to the inability to grow single-crystal diamond across wafers much bigger than an inch and a half.

Contd
ADT and sp3 have sidestepped the doping and scaling

problems facing single-crystal carbon films by instead growing wafer-scale polycrystalline diamond films.
Nano-crystalline diamond allows us to solve both the

doping and scaling problems with single-crystalline diamond.

Comparison of Diamond & Silicon chip:

Diamond chip can withstand a temperature of 500

degree Celsius, but 150 degree Celsius for silicon chip.

Diamond chip can operate 81 GHz frequency which is

nearly double that of Silicon chip.

Diamond chip can resist voltages upto 200V, where as

20V for Silicon.

Diamond has an extremely high thermal conductivity,

can withstand high electric fields.

Contd
Diamond offers 10 times the heat dissipation of silicon and has been successfully implemented.

Fig. Heat dissipation curve of silicon and diamond.

Merits:
Smaller components are possible.
It works at higher temperature.
Fig: 1000 transistors on a finger tip

Faster than Silicon chip. Larger power handling capacity.

Limitations:
However, diamond chips are not expected to completely replace silicon chips for another 20 years because:
Very expensive than Silicon i.e. artificial diamond for

chips is still much more expensive than silicon.

Electricity cannot flow through diamond. Doping of diamond is very difficult.

Applications:
In MEMS based applications.

Carbon transistors.

Fig: Carbon Transistors using Carbon as wafer

The chip would be most useful in devices located near

hot-burning engines(power electronic applications). Smaller, speedier computer chips can be made using diamond chips. In automobiles or in aeroplanes.

An Application of Diamond chip:

Transistors less than one-quarter

the size of the tinniest Silicon ones and potentially more efficient can be made using sheets of Carbon just one-tenth of a nanometer thick.
The transistors are made of graphene, a sheet of

carbon atoms in a flat honey-comb arrangement.

Graphene makes graphite when stacked in layers and

carbon nanotubes when rolled in a tube.

Contd
Graphene also conducts electricity faster than most

materials since electrons can travel through in a straight lines between atoms without being scattered. This could ultimately mean faster more efficient components that also requires less power.

Fig : Graphene sheet in planar structure.

Conclusion:
The chips would be most useful in devices located near

hot-burning engines, such as those used in future aspects.

Thus Carbon Chip replaces the need of silicon chip in

every aspect in future generations.