Orion Farr, alchemist

alchemist at @eapsMIT @oxfordchemistry breathing mud into life : PhD condensed matter physics & MS geochemistry

[Object Zero @Object_Zero_]

Single Crystal CVD Diamond

Have no doubt, you are at the dawn of an industrial revolution. There is a string of breakthroughs happening throughout upstream industries that all compound.

Diamond manufacturing is now able to produce CPU size single crystals wafers.

Currently these are marketed as heat spreaders because they have thermal conductivity of 2,200 W/mK which means they move heat incredibly effectively.

However, that somewhat misses the wood for the trees…

Diamond has physical and electrical properties that exceed traditional silicon, making it uniquely suited for high demand applications.

Thermal Conductivity: Heat is the enemy of electronics. Diamond conducts heat better than almost any other known material, about 5 times better than copper and over 10 times better than silicon.

A diamond chip can act as its own heat sink.

Ultra Wide Bandgap: Diamond can handle massive amounts of voltage and operate at incredibly high temperatures without electrical breakdown.

This makes it perfect for high power applications like electric vehicle inverters, power grids, and aerospace technologies.

High Frequencies: Electrons move very quickly through diamond, allowing chips to operate at much higher frequencies, which is ideal for advanced telecommunications and radar.

Radiation Hardness: Diamond is incredibly resilient to radiation, making diamond based chips ideal for satellites, space exploration, and nuclear facilities.

To make a material act as a semiconductor, you have to "dope" it. To do this you inject impurities into the crystal lattice to create a positive (p-type) or negative (n-type) charge.

Diamond's atomic structure is so tightly packed that forcing other elements into it is hard. While p-type doping (with boron) has been figured out, reliable n-type doping (with phosphorus) remains a massive hurdle.

Theoretical ceilings

Band gap
Silicon wafer = 1.1 eV
Diamond CVD wafer = 5.5eV

Clock speed
Silicon wafer = 5-6 GHz clock wall
Diamond CVD wafer = 1-2 THz clock wall

Max Running Temp
Silicon wafer = 150°C
Diamond CVD wafer = 1,000°C

Whilst we etch silicon with photolithography and Extreme UV light, this doesn’t really work with chemically inert diamond.

Diamond CVD is currently etched with oxygen plasma etching, but this lacks the precision of EUV.

However, we can etch diamond to extreme precision with electron projection lithography. EPL was invented in the 90s by Bell Labs, IBM and Nikkon but abandoned as it was harder than EUV.

Electrons repel each other so the beams blurrs too readily.

What if we built a femto electron beam?
What if we built it to extreme such that it was a ‘single electron’ pulse?

What if we build a microscopic "bed of nails" containing millions of nanoscale tungsten or silicon tips (photocathodes). You shine a massive, highly complex femtosecond laser system across the entire array.

Every time the laser pulses, millions of tiny tips each fire a single, perfectly straight electron at the exact same time.

Turns out, research teams at likes of MIT and Stanford are currently experimenting with exactly this, laser driven nanotip electron emitters.

Pair that tool with Diamond CVD substrate tech and we approach the material limits of both semiconductors and nanotechnology.

Would require asynchronous logic to escape fatal clock skew and operate at full capability.

But I think I will live to see it.

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

@dbessner wrong

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

@ChristinaTasty this is just Antkind by Charlie Kaufman

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

@alisha_hg very difficult to write without reading

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

@JohnWakefieId @ettingermentum Isn’t that @RoKhanna ?

[Eric Betzig @Eric_Betzig]

Early iSOAR 5D movie of membrane and mitochondria dynamics over 3 hrs at 3 min intervals in the head of a zebrafish embryo 6 dpf, covering a 300 x 1000 um FOV at 193 x 193 x 550 nm resolution (0.8 TB total).

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

in this recent paper we found these beautiful native iron nails and Green Rust derived nanostructures formed from the disproportionation of Fe(II) --> Fe(0) and Fe(III) within spontaneously generated mineral membranes @GreenRustOne @CNRS_dr12 #originoflife #science

[CNRS Biologie @CNRSbiologie]

#ResultatScientifique🔎| Comment des processus géologiques pourraient-ils avoir favorisé l’apparition de la vie sur Terre ?

✍️ Simon Duval
👋 @CNRS_dr12
📕 @NatureComms
▶️ https://t.co/h5UJm13a0N

👉️ https://t.co/7VSQcdNx5r

[Patrick Boyle — e/🦀 @p_maverick_b]

Reagents $200
Cloud $150
Rent $800
Journal fees $3,600
Utility $150

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my lab is dying

[Bodie Satva 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @themopinomicon]

Now reveal the Sun is conscious.

[Shabazz Stuart @ShabazzStuart]

Happy to die on this hill: One of the single greatest affordable housing actions the region could take is realizing the *excellent* @RegionalPlan T-Rex concept that would create an RER like regional metro which would allow ppl to live much farther + cheaper from Manhattan.

[MoundLore @MoundLore]

Iowa

[Ælþemplær @Aelthemplaer]

You are tapping into forces you know not the power of.

[Ryan Moulton @moultano]

Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists. You're telling me that there's a black ichor under the earth, made from the ancient dead, whose burning can realize all the dreams of man but only at the price of slowly returning the earth to its primordial state?

[Alexander's Cartographer @cartographer_s]

Zoroaster, the Alchemist who has Achieved Illumination - from the "Clavis Artis"

[Gugga Leunnam @GuggaLeunnam]

The Atmosphere of Halo Combat Evolved

[Ariele 🏗️🌐🏳️‍⚧️ @PositivistWitch]

put the sulphur back in the fucking bunker fuel

[Mark R. Brown, AICP, CNU @CompletedStreet]

NY should just annex (conquer) Northern NJ.

[John Cogs @JohnCogs5]

I am more than my Fluid.

[𝗲𝘃𝗮✨ @kellmanstreep]

these men represent all of us

[Orion Farr, alchemist @Orionfarr]

@kellmanstreep thats my brother lol