Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 3 hrs ago
Diamond materials move into production for cooling high-power chips
As AI computing drives up chip power and heat, diamond is being developed to cool high-power chips.
The work is taking place in Zhengzhou, China, where China National Machinery Diamond says it has developed heat-spreading materials for chip packaging.
Copper and silicon, widely used for cooling, are approaching their limits, while diamond conducts heat four to five times better than copper and can insulate against electricity.
The company says it can produce more than 40,000 diamond cooling plates a year and has begun batch deliveries of some types.
Its diamond-copper material is supplied in stable batches, but provides about half the cooling performance of pure diamond at one-tenth of the price.
The material could help chips run faster without overheating, as AI servers and other high-power electronics demand more effective cooling.
The company is expanding production, while a higher-performance single-crystal product is still being developed.
Diamond heat-sink materials are moving from small-scale trials into industrial production for high-power chips.
A company in Henan has reached annual capacity of more than 40,000 three-inch diamond heat sinks.
The materials can help address heat limits on high-performance chips used in AI and other demanding fields.
The company has achieved batch supply of diamond-copper composites and batch delivery of polycrystalline diamond heat sinks.
Single-crystal diamond substrates, described as the most technically advanced option, are still under development.
- Who
- Guoji Diamond (Henan) Co. and other Chinese materials companies.
- What
- Diamond materials are entering production for cooling high-power chips.
- When
- The article was published on November 3, 2026; it describes production and developments during 2026.
- Where
- The company is based in Zhengzhou, with production bases in Yichuan, Luoyang, and Hami, Xinjiang.
- Why
- Rising chip power and heat flows are pushing traditional cooling materials toward their limits.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
China's first man-made diamond was produced in Zhengzhou through work by the Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives and Grinding.
Sugon introduced a megawatt-class phase-change immersion-cooled server rack, using diamond-copper heat-conducting material at scale in China's liquid-cooling industry for the first time.
A fourth-generation semiconductor materials manufacturing base was signed for development in Zhengzhou, with planned investment of 1.5 billion yuan.
A diamond-semiconductor industry supply-chain meeting was held in Suzhou, where Zhengzhou companies sought cooperation with semiconductor firms in the Yangtze River Delta.
The 2026 Diamond Industry Conference was scheduled to take place in Shanghai.
- Annual capacity
- More than 40,000 three-inch diamond heat sinks
- Investment
- Nearly 1 billion yuan across the company's three industrial bases
- Diamond-copper material
- Heat-dissipation efficiency is half that of pure diamond; price is one-tenth
- Thermal conductivity
- Diamond is four to five times as conductive as traditional copper
- Planned wafer production
- 2-inch to 4-inch single-crystal wafers at the Zhengzhou base
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What people are saying
Diamond's thermal conductivity is four to five times that of traditional copper, and its heat-dissipation efficiency is far higher; it also has excellent electrical insulation, so it can be attached directly to a chip's core area and avoid the risk of short circuits.
Diamond heat sinks have changed from a luxury item into a necessity for high-power AI chips.
China's high-end diamond materials have entered the international semiconductor industry chain.