Just one year after starting synthetic diamond foundry operations in Trujillo (Cáceres), Diamond Foundry has received support from the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Administration for its expansion project. The new plant will receive an investment of $2.77 billion (around €2.4 billion), of which the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) will contribute €753 million as part of the PERTE chip program.

The US company, which describes the launch of its first plant in Cáceres as a successful experience, will scale up the production volume of what is its most advanced and unique technology, single-crystal diamond (SCD) wafers. Although the current plant was built to supply both traditional diamond buyers and the semiconductor industry, with an annual production of 10 million carats, the expansion will be mainly dedicated to chip production.

Zaragoza will complement the Cáceres plant
The new building, which is already under construction near the current one, with two daily shifts, will increase the SCD ingot production capacity. When the new facility begins operating, the ingots it produces will be sent to Zaragoza to complete the process. In the Aragonese capital, the ingots will be sliced into thin wafers, given a surface finish, and packaged in a clean room.

The use of synthetic diamond in semiconductors will enable advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence, the cloud, 5G and 6G communications, and electric cars. Silicon currently represents a limit to this progress due to its tendency to overheat at high computing speeds. Diamond has greater thermal conductivity, and this ability to avoid overheating makes it an ideal replacement, providing operating efficiency and power.

Transforming methane into diamonds without polluting
Diamond Foundry's patented synthetic diamond production process transforms methane, a greenhouse gas, into diamond crystal. What's more, it does so with zero-emission energy.

In March 2023, Diamond Foundry announced its arrival in Europe with the construction of its Trujillo plant, an $850 million project that received €81 million in government aid. Its plasma reactors have been designed for the production of wafer-sized monocrystalline diamonds.

^{Photo: Diamond Foundry}