Element Six GaN-on-Diamond Named Semiconductor Material of the Year

At Electronic Device Industry News' 2015 Semiconductor of the Year award ceremony, hosted on June 3 at Tokyo Big Site in Japan, Element Six—the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials and member of The De Beers Group of Companies—was presented with the Grand Prix for semiconductor materials. Nominated and voted on by Electronic Device Industry News reporters, Element Six earned the program's highest honor for its innovative GaN-on-Diamond 4 inch wafer.  

"Being selected, as this year's Semiconductor Material of the Year, by Japan's leading semiconductor reporters is truly a great honor. We are humbled and inspired to continue offering electronic device manufacturers highly effective synthetic diamond thermal management solutions," said Steve Coe, executive director of group innovation at Element Six. "Our continued dedication to developing the low thermal resistance of GaN-on-Diamond wafers has resulted in a significant improvement in power density compared to GaN-on-Silicon Carbide (SiC) wafers, and it's thrilling to see this advancement recognized by the growing industry in Japan."

Leveraging technology initially developed more than 10 years ago, Element Six Gallium Nitride (GaN)-on-Diamond wafer technology was the first-of-its-kind to be commercially available. In recent years, the GaN-on-Diamond market has expanded and Element Six's synthetic diamond was proven, by Raytheon Company, to significantly outperform industry standard Gallium Nitride-on-Silicon Carbide (GaN-on-SiC) in RF devices. The study showed that GaN-on-Diamond substrates, fabricated by Element Six, dissipate heat more than three times more effectively than silicon carbide. To learn more, please visit: www.e6.com. 

About Element Six

Element Six is a synthetic diamond supermaterials company. Element Six is a member of The De Beers Group of Companies, its majority shareholder. Element Six designs, develops and produces synthetic diamond supermaterials, and operates worldwide with its head office registered in Luxembourg, and primary manufacturing facilities in China, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, U.S. and the U.K.

Element Six supermaterial solutions are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing, while the extreme properties of synthetic diamond beyond hardness are already opening up new applications in a wide array of industries such as optics, power transmission, water treatment, semiconductors and sensors.