Diamond Heat Sinks for Chips: Deputies and Members Discuss Upgrading of the Superhard Materials Industry

"China's lab-grown diamonds have taken the mainstream markets in Europe and the US. Seven out of every 10 lab-grown diamonds come from Henan, and the brand image of 'World Diamonds Made in Henan' has taken deep root," said Shao Zengming, deputy to the National People's Congress and Chairman of Henan Liliang Diamond Co., Ltd. During an exclusive interview with Science and Technology Daily on March 10 amid the Two Sessions, he elaborated on the high-quality development path of the superhard materials industry.

With over 20 years of dedication to the superhard materials industry, Shao Zengming has witnessed its leapfrog development in China. At present, China accounts for about 95% of the global production of single-crystal diamond. As the core industrial cluster, Henan produces approximately 12 billion carats of industrial-grade synthetic diamond annually, making up half of the global output. Behind the impressive figures, however, lies an urgent need to shift from "scale advantage" to "technology leadership".

"We rank first in output worldwide, yet we still face bottleneck risks in high-end applications," Shao Zengming stated frankly. Key sectors such as special diamonds for chip processing urgently need breakthroughs, which is also the core focus of "strengthening industrial base reengineering and tackling key technologies and equipment" in the Government Work Report.

Liliang Diamond has successfully grown rough diamonds over 1 carat at 1600℃ under high temperature and high pressure, with a 156.47-carat rough diamond setting a world record. Yet Shao Zengming remains clear-minded: only sustained technological innovation can secure a solid position for "Chinese diamonds" in high-end manufacturing, semiconductor heat dissipation and other core fields.

Superhard materials are the cornerstone for upgrading the manufacturing and semiconductor industries, and a vital pioneer driving new-quality productive forces. Focusing on special octahedral diamond — a key consumable for chip processing (accounting for less than 1% of industrial diamonds), Shao Zengming led his team to break foreign monopolies and fill the gap of "superhard core materials" for China's chip processing.

The superhard materials industry is embracing major development opportunities. "The key bottleneck for computing power improvement in AI is heat dissipation. We have conquered diamond heat sink technology and achieved mass production. Its thermal conductivity is more than five times that of copper, equivalent to attaching a 'diamond heat sink' to chips to prevent overheating. We now lead the field of high-power semiconductor thermal materials," Shao Zengming explained the value of this technological breakthrough in plain terms.

Shao Zengming believes that Henan boasts profound industrial foundations and geographical advantages, fully capable of building a core hinterland and backup base for the superhard materials industry, and forging a "superhard barrier" for national industrial and supply chain security. Earlier, the superhard materials metrology project was selected as one of the first "Ten Key Projects" for metrology to support industrial development of new-quality productive forces, providing strong support for industrial growth.

"This year, I suggest that the state support joint R&D between semiconductor enterprises and superhard materials enterprises, increase the adoption of domestic superhard materials, and accelerate the localization of core materials," Shao Zengming said. Going forward, he will lead the company to deepen high-end fields such as semiconductor heat dissipation, accelerate the construction of semiconductor material production bases, expand the lab-grown diamond consumer market, polish the "Chinese Diamond" brand, support the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of manufacturing, and contribute to building a strong manufacturing country and developing new-quality productive forces.