Jun 14 2006
Element Six (E6) announces that it has acquired the assets and intellectual property in order to fabricate a new material, ScD, a unique cemented diamond-silicon carbide composite. The Intellectual Property and know-how were purchased from Skeleton Technologies AG of Switzerland and the manufacturing plant has been acquired from Stockholm Termobehandling AB. In order to benefit from E6's existing powder metallurgy expertise and comprehensive diamond research and production capability, the ScD fabrication machinery will be installed in E6's industrial diamond production facility in South Africa.
ScD has already proven its use in a broad range of applications. The high diamond content of ScD makes it an ideal thermal management substrate for the higher powered silicon-based electronic devices such as processors used in Network Servers and industrial PCs. The diamond composite is extremely wear-resistant and the manufacturing technology lends itself to making three dimensional shapes for complex wear parts and mining components. The inert nature of silicon carbide and the biocompatibility of diamond will enable the production of medical prosthetics such as hip joints.
E6 Technologies' Commercial Development Manager, Christopher Ogilvie Thompson, said, "This acquisition enables Element Six to be at the forefront of putting diamond based thermal management systems into Network Servers and then into many other high-powered electronic systems. This will be the first of many applications for this exciting new material. Diamond is the ultimate engineering material and ScD is a cost effective material enabling the electronic industry to make use of the extreme properties of diamond. Element Six is delighted to be at the forefront of assisting the electronics industry to launch more powerful servers using diamond-based thermal management systems".