Diamond heat sink - greatly improve the efficiency of Laser diodes

It was shown as early as the late 1960s that diamond crystals can be employed as effective heat sink bases for semiconductor lasers. The thermal conductivity of diamond is one of its most remarkable properties. It exceeds by several folds the thermal conductivity of all other solid materials: metals, semiconductors and dielectrics, including copper, which is used most frequently to remove heat in electronics. Diamond is also applied as a highly effective heat sink material in other semiconductor devices, such as avalanche and Gunn diodes.

Using multifunctional ion-beam and magnetron sputtering systems, we have developed chemical and vacuum

techniques for producing metallic coatings firmly adherent to various surfaces, with application to copper and

diamond heat sinks for diode lasers. Conditions have been optimized for mounting diode lasers and bars using the

proposed metallization processes, and significant improvements in the output parameters of the devices have been

achieved. The power output of CW laser diodes on diamond heat sinks increases by up to a factor of 2, the linear

(working) portion of their power-current characteristic becomes markedly broader, and their slope efficiency

increases by a factor of 1.5-2.0 relative to that of lasers on copper heat spreaders. The use of diamond heat sinks

extends the drive current range of pulsed diode bars by a factor of 2-3 and enables them to operate at more than one

order of magnitude longer pump pulse duration (up to milliseconds) when the pulse repetition rate is at least 10 Hz.

The use of diamond in commercial applications is however limited by its relatively high cost and a number of technical problems. With more than 10 years of technological development, CSMH has made breakthroughs. We currently produce ,  with the thermal conductivity reaches 1000-2000W/m.K. Our products were designed for "heat dissipation," and are widely utilized in the applications of high-power, high-frequency, and high-temperature electronic devices.