Reduced thermal resistance of the silicon-synthetic diamond composite substrates at elevated temperatures

The authors report results of experimental investigation of thermal conductivity of synthetic diamond-silicon composite substrates. Although composite substrates are more thermally resistive than silicon at room temperature they outperform conventional wafers at elevated temperatures owing to different thermal conductivity dependence on temperature. The crossover point is reached near ∼360 K and can be made even lower by tuning the polycrystalline-grain size, film thickness, and interface quality. The reduction of thermal resistance of composite wafers at temperatures, typical for operation of electronic chips, may lead to better thermal management and new phonon-engineered methods for the electron mobility enhancement.