With the recent advancements in technology, machines have become an essential part of our daily lives. Most of these are electronic thin film materials and devices, crafted from large facilities of semiconductors. Even if you are to build a small computer chip, you need a large semiconductor fabrication facility, which involves both capital investment and expert man power.
Alternatively, there are suppliers that reduce this burden and manufacture the essential machines for various purposes. With the rapid expansion of electronics industry, the seeds for the alternatives and machine revolution were planted. This is largely visible as the semiconductor chips have continued to shrink in size, with the discovery of newer semiconductor materials.
Now a days, carbon based diamonds are synthetically produced through machines, and have a wide variety of applications replacing the expensive diamonds. These can either directly be purchased from the manufacturer or can be produced using owned machines. There are two methods to produce carbon like diamonds:
1. HPHT Diamond: This type of diamond is produced using the high pressure, high temperature technique. The minute diamond seeds grow up due to bonding with the molten carbon, produced after subjecting to high temperature and high pressure. As it solidifies, synthetic diamond is obtained.
2. CVD Diamond: This type of diamond is produced using the high carbon vapor deposition technique. The diamond is developed from a hydrocarbon gas mixture that is fed into the chamber and energized. The diamond powder acts as substrate to promote the growth of synthetic diamond.
Although, both these techniques produce diamonds of high quality, HPHT techniques are suitable for large scale applications while CVD techniques are suitable for laboratory applications. These synthetic diamonds, produced from isotropic forms of pure carbon find uses in a variety of applications. The use of carbon like diamonds greatly impacts your project cost.
The applications include:
• Shaping, cutting and polishing of tools.
• Electronic devices such as transistors and light emitting diode.
• Heat sinks that cool down mechanical devices.
• Detection of UV light or high energy particles.
• Transmitting infrared and microwave radiation.
• Semiconductor devices after being doped with Boron and Phosphorous.
• Replacing gemstones
Carbon, with an excellent property of catenation (cross linking) is an amazing material and enables the manufacturers to do amazing stuffs. Recently, carbon has been utilized to produce diamond like carbon coating which is a nano-composite coating, replicating the properties of original diamond such as:
• Low friction,
• High hardness,
• Electrical insulation,
• Thermal conductivity,
• Self lubrication,
• High optical transparency and
• High corrosion resistance.
The properties vary depending upon the orbital configuration of carbon and quantity of other fillers like hydrogen, silicon, and metal in the coating layer. Thus, the allotrope of carbon like diamond has become an essential manufacturing component of thin film deposition systems.
The instruments such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) systems, electron beam evaporators, thermal evaporators, reactive sputtering tool, hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) systems, and thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) systems are efficient for the production of thin film coatings of carbon like diamond.
In an attempt to put carbon to good use, the synthetic carbon and its diversified uses in coatings are appreciable domains. If you are looking forward to carbon based coatings for nanometer thickness, these devices are ready for your use!
