synthetic diamonds

[Jonathan]

so i know why intel isn't too interested. it's the same reason intel has yet to move to SOI. just one of the two factories in the buildings behind my desk ships something on the order of 100 thousand processors each week. annually, intel ships something on the order of a 100 million processors. the number of die per wafer on a 300 mm wafer is, depending on defects, between 100 and 1000. let us lowball at 100. that means intel needs a million wafers a year or thereabouts. until the diamond guys produce somewhere near those kinds of numbers, intel won't buy in.

i work for intel, but my opinions are not necessarily those of intel. i do not speak for intel. the words above are my opinion and not the official position of intel corporation.

[bob]

What I'm wondering is how they can turn gem-quality diamonds into semiconductors. Crush them into dust? Because then they would no longer be the multi-carat marvel that they are.

[Jonathan]

Look: http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/default.htm

Si and C have the same number of valence electrons. They're the same damn thing, only it's cheaper to get fantistically pure Si crystals currently, but pure C crystals have a higher melting point and better electrical properties. If you have a fantastically pure C crystal, you slice that sucker into circles about a foot long and a millimeter or two thick. Then you arrange about 500 little chip designs on it and send it through your factory, where they use x-ray lasers, acids, and other assorted gunk to produce 500 little chips on a circle. Then you slice that circle into 500 little squares and sell them for an average price of around $170. Any questions?

[quantus]

we're not quite to x-ray lasers yet. Maybe in 5-10 years. We're still not even at EUV yet.

[quantus]

factory, where they use EUV, acids, and other assorted gunk (like photo-sensative polymers)

This happens to be my area of expertise, so direct all questions this way on this stuff.

[Jonathan]

well, shit. if you'da asked me, i woulda sworn that 175-185 nm was down in the x-ray spectrum. but it's not. it's UV, like joe says. guess i was wrong about that.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ems3.html

[bob]

Yeah, I mostly just do software.

And "art"

[Jonathan]

Yeah, I mostly just do software.

And "art"

So when can we see your "art"?

[quantus]

he's and art-eest. You can't rush him or you'll ruin the are. It's kinda like a quiche in that way...

[bob]

So when can we see your "art"?

Well, here are the main pieces from my poster for today's end-of-internship science fair thing. I recommend the PNG files, as opposed to the PSD ones.
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~rrost/internship/