Technology Briefing
Pioneering diamond technology

Scio Diamond was the first to produce chemical vapor deposition (CVD) single-crystal diamond plates, CVD-grown diamond gems and one-inch square single-crystal diamond wafers.
In addition, Scio Diamond established the relationship between impurities and color in gemstones and optics, wrote computer code enabling automated diamond manufacturing and established quality protocols for diamond growth.
Scio Diamond currently holds 36 U.S. and international patents, providing broad intellectual property protection for our manufacturing processes and substantial future opportunities for the use of diamond for semiconductors, light emitting diodes and laser applications.
Selected Scio Diamond Patents | Patent Number |
Structures Formed in Diamond | 7,122,837 |
Gallium Nitride Light-Emitting Devices on Diamond | 8,129,733 |
Gallium Nitride Light-Emitting Devices on Diamond | 8,435,833 |
Method of Forming a Waveguide in Diamond | 8,058,085 |
Tunable CVD Diamond Structures | 6,858,080 |
System and Method for Producing Synthetic Diamond | 7,258,741 |
Diamond Heat Sink in a Laser | 8,133,320 |
Method of Forming a Waveguide in Diamond | 8,455,278 |
System and Method for Producing Synthetic Diamond | 6,582,513 |
Method of Growing Single-Crystal Diamond in a Plasma Reactor | 8,187,380 |
Grown Diamond Mosaic Separation | 8,048,223 |
Enhanced Diamond Polishing | 7,238,088 |
Single-Crystal Diamond Electrochemical Electrode | 8,591,856 |
System and Method for Producing Synthetic Diamond | 7,789,148 |
Boron-Doped Single-Crystal Diamond Electrochemical Synthesis Electrode | 8,974,599 |
Method of Forming an N-Type Doped Single-Crystal Diamond | 7,459,024 |
Method of Growing Boron-Doped Single-Crystal Diamond in a Plasma Reactor | 7,942,966 |
A Single-Crystal Diamond Having 12C, 13C, and Phosphorous | 7,560,086 |
Single-Crystal Diamond Tool | 7,201,886 |
Diamond Medical Devices | 7,829,377 |
Boron-Doped Diamond Semiconductor | 8,158,455 |
Gemstone Production from CVD Diamond Plate | 8,342,164 |
Detection of Chemical Vapor Deposition-Grown Diamond | 8,134,694 |
Detection of Chemical Vapor Deposition-Grown Diamond | 8,514,377 |
Retail-Compatible Detection of CVD-Grown Diamond | 8,213,000 |
Retail-Compatible Detection of CVD-Grown Diamond | 8,553,208 |
Carbon Grit | 8,641,999 |
Scio Diamond’s CVD technology
CVD, a chemical process, deposits solid materials onto a surface. The semiconductor industry uses CVD to produce very high quality, high-performance thin films. Other industries select it for microfabrication processes, to deposit materials such as silicon, carbon fiber, fluorocarbons, filaments, tungsten, and titanium nitride. Scio Diamond employs CVD techniques in a proprietary manner to deposit the diamond allotrope of carbon onto a diamond seed substrate.
In our CVD process, a sliver of substrate, a diamond seed, is placed in the growth chamber and is exposed to a plasma. This cloud of excited carbon-rich gases creates a chemical reaction that induces nucleation of the diamond on the surface of the seed. Growing a diamond requires precise control of:
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atmospheric pressure
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hydrocarbon, hydrogen and other gas flows
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temperature
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other contaminants
Production of a new diamond begins with the diamond seed. The source of this seed can be a mined diamond or one grown through CVD or HPHT technology. The seed provides a crystal lattice blueprint, an attachment point and order for new carbon atoms. It is introduced to the mixture of gasses at controlled, elevated temperatures. The seed is immersed in a high-energy carbon-hydrogen mixture that produces carbon-to-carbon diamond bonds on it. This produces a three-dimensional crystal structure that grows from the seed. This atom-by-atom process continues until operators stop the reaction at the desired thickness.
CVD allows diamonds to be grown with a great deal of control over the properties of the finished stone.
In the early days of CVD, only one seed could be grown at a time, but technology advances in the process and growing reactors enable the platforms to now produce diamonds in large batches.