Kara single-crystal diamond wafer

Kara

Engineering diamond for

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Built and advised by a team from
UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group Berkeley Lab Genentech Regeneron Varda Space Industries Partner institution Partner institution Partner institution

We engineer diamond

Grown in our reactors.

Growth, processing, and characterization, in-house.

Why diamond.

Single-crystal diamond combines thermal, electrical, and optical properties that are difficult to match in one material.

diamond GaN 4H-SiC Si
Si · bandgap 1.12 eV (20%) Si · breakdown field 0.3 MV/cm (3%) Si · thermal conductivity 150 W/m·K (6%) Si · hole mobility 480 cm²/V·s (13%) Si · electron mobility 1,400 cm²/V·s (31%) Si · saturation velocity 1.0×10⁷ cm/s (37%) 4H-SiC · bandgap 3.26 eV (60%) 4H-SiC · breakdown field 2.8 MV/cm (28%) 4H-SiC · thermal conductivity 490 W/m·K (20%) 4H-SiC · hole mobility 120 cm²/V·s (3%) 4H-SiC · electron mobility 900 cm²/V·s (20%) 4H-SiC · saturation velocity 2.0×10⁷ cm/s (74%) GaN · bandgap 3.39 eV (62%) GaN · breakdown field 3.3 MV/cm (33%) GaN · thermal conductivity 130 W/m·K (5%) GaN · hole mobility 200 cm²/V·s (5%) GaN · electron mobility 1,200 cm²/V·s (27%) GaN · saturation velocity 2.5×10⁷ cm/s (93%) Diamond · bandgap 5.47 eV (100%) Diamond · breakdown field 10 MV/cm (100%) Diamond · thermal conductivity 2,400 W/m·K (100%) Diamond · hole mobility 3,800 cm²/V·s (100%) Diamond · electron mobility 4,500 cm²/V·s (100%) Diamond · saturation velocity 2.7×10⁷ cm/s (100%) 25 50 75 100% Bandgap Breakdownfield Thermalconductivity Hole mobility Electronmobility Saturationvelocity
Six properties normalized to the best-performing material (outer ring = 100%). Exact values are given in the table. Data: Wort & Balmer (2008); Isberg et al. (2002); Tsao et al. (2018).
PropertySiGaAs4H-SiCGaNDiamond
BandgapeV1.121.423.263.395.47
Breakdown fieldMV/cm0.30.42.83.310
Thermal conductivityW/m·K150554901302,400
Electron mobilitycm²/V·s1,4008,5009001,2004,500
Hole mobilitycm²/V·s4804001202003,800
Saturation velocity10⁷ cm/s1.01.22.02.52.7
Johnson figure of meritnormalized to Si172781,0898,206
Baliga figure of meritnormalized to Si1165001,00024,660

Values at 300 K. Johnson and Baliga figures of merit normalized to silicon. Same sources as the chart.

Works cited →

From material properties to

Applications.

Where diamond offers a material advantage.

01

Thermal management

Managing heat where it is generated.

02

Power electronics

Materials for next-generation power devices.

03

Quantum sensing

Room-temperature quantum sensing.

04

Photonics

Waveguides and cavities in thin-film diamond.

05

Quantum networks

Spin–photon interfaces for quantum networks.

06

Research substrates

Characterized wafers for reproducible research.

Kara diamond wafer
orientation specified plane and miscut
surface sub-nanometer roughness
purity specified impurity profile
isotope controlled ¹²C fraction

Specified. Grown. Characterized.

Materials.

Specification sheets are available under NDA.