Hardware Ready Ready to Bench?
UWBG semiconductors. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) have included UWBG semiconductors – ultra-wide bandgap materials – in a draft policy document. Among them, synthetic diamond and gallium oxide are central to research on advanced electronics and heat management, a critical aspect in developing chips for artificial intelligence.
Synthetic diamond is generating interest due to its cooling capabilities, thanks to its high thermal conductivity. Technical literature indicates values around 2,000 W/(m·K), significantly higher than silicon’s approximately 150 W/(m·K). This characteristic makes it a potential heat spreader from electronic devices to dissipating surfaces.
UWBG semiconductors: why it matters
Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), on the other hand, is under study for power and radio-frequency device applications due to its electrical properties. Its thermal conductivity is lower, with values ranging between 10 and 27 W/(m·K). Therefore, belonging to the same UWBG family does not imply equivalent performance in heat transport.
Diamond could contribute to dissipating heat generated by AI chips, but effectiveness depends on the quality of interfaces between materials. The acronym UWBG refers to the width of the energy gap between the valence band and the conduction band.
Semiconductor research explores various directions, from power management to miniaturization. Among the areas of study is also the growth of two-dimensional semiconductors on a wafer scale, with the goal of creating uniform layers for transistor construction.
What changes and what are the effects
To leverage diamond in thermal management, researchers are studying the integration of semiconductor materials with high-conductivity substrates. A crucial aspect is represented by the thermal interface: heat transfer between two materials depends on the quality of their contact. Therefore, diamond’s properties must translate into effective transfer throughout the entire device structure.
The selection of these materials in the draft prepared by MIIT and NDRC represents a policy choice, but at present, no commercial AI chips cooled with diamond or measurable temperature reductions are documented. At the design level, application to AI chips concerns the heat path from the source to the cooling system, considering the construction and connection of different layers.
Source and further reading on UWBG semiconductors: original article.
* Content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems.