Current R&D Efforts
We are employing CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) as our technology platform for growth of diamond material. CVD) was first explored for growth of diamond material starting in the 1980’s. Only in more recent years has CVD been used to growth high-quality single crystal diamond material for gem and other applications. In the CVD technique, the high-quality diamond material is grown in a reactor where carbon-containing gases are activated using a plasma discharge. The CVD technology can be used for a range of applications. Through our R&D efforts we have explored several different CVD technologies. As an example, using toroidal plasma platform, we have achieved extremely high rate (> 100 um/hour) growth of single crystal diamond material. We successfully completed two SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) programs in conjunction with the U.S. Army Research Laboratories: (https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/1514533). The funding total that we received was $1.15M over a period of several years. If you are interested in more of our results using our toroidal plasma platform.
Diamond material can also be grown using an older technique called HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature). The HPHT technique mimics the way that diamonds are grown in the earth – basically, enormously high pressures plus very high temperatures plus some chemistry converts carbon starting material to diamond material. The HPHT technology is in wide use today, mainly to make industrial-grade material for a variety of applications. More recently, HPHT has been used to make some gem-quality diamond material as well.
Chemical Vapor Deposition
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) was first explored for growth of diamond material starting in the 1980’s. Only in more recent years has CVD been used to growth high-quality single crystal diamond material for gem and other applications. In the CVD technique, the high-quality diamond material is grown in a reactor where carbon-containing gases are activated using a plasma discharge.
Applications for CVD
There are a large and growing number of applications for CVD diamond material. More information can be found here:
Advanced Microwave System
For our gem production activity, we have developed an advanced microwave plasma platform, which is employed by our sister company Clarity Diamond