Diamond technology to revolutionize mobile communications

Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory teamed up with DARPA are developing a technology based on diamonds. This technology will enable cell phones to operate at much higher frequencies. The funding from DARPA is key to the challenging undertaking of developing a whole new MEMS technology based on the novel UNCD material.

DARPA– the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency – is funding the work for advanced telecommunications systems to be used in both military and civilian applications. These devices will be fully integrated with silicon microchips to enable a new generation of high performance portable communication systems. Eventually the fruits of this project could result in enabling a variety of mobile technologies with much higher data communication rates.

The technology is based on Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD), a material developed at Argonne that will enable diamond resonators and oscillators to be directly integrated with microelectronics chips for next-generation telecommunication devices, according to an Argonne press release.

Argonne says: "Diamond is the hardest known substance on earth. In addition, since diamond is both stiff and light, it can be used to produce tuning fork devices that vibrate at frequencies higher than similar devices of the same dimensions made of other materials—up to 100 bil. times per second for diamond tuning folks that are around 100 nanometers in size.

"Such high frequency structures can be used as key electrical elements in cell phones, enabling them to operate at much higher frequencies. The challenge is to manufacture diamond tuning forks reliably and affordably enough for them to be widely adopted in broadband communication devices."

Argonne is working with Advanced Diamond Technologies, Innovative Micro Technology, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the project.

Source: About Amazing Diamonds