Joshua Lewis

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@SawyerMerritt A moment of silence for deep blue metallic

[Sam Korus @skorusARK]

“We’ve done the analysis, reusable rockets aren’t economic.”

SpaceX makes reusable rockets economic.

“We’ve done the analysis satellite internet isn’t economic. The antenna alone is tens of thousands of dollars. The cost to manage a constellation that size, the radiation, the space hardened solar cost…”

Satellite internet appears to be a very good business with antennas in the $100 range.

“We’ve done the analysis, orbital data centers aren’t economic. The radiators, launch costs, the radiation, the solar…”

You are here.

[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.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

Air conditioning is getting installed today in three rooms. Behold! the glorious power of free will.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@heydave7 Has Dave lost his mind?

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@heydave7 It does on many Chinese cars.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

‘Small, Quiet’ The vast majority of the Chinese EREVs are using 1.5 or 2 litre, 4 cylinder engines. So just average size. Many of them can also drive the front axle directly. This works in china because rapid EV charging is far more common place, and the ICE just allows people to skip them on the national holidays when there are queues.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

I see lots of insane charts, but this one takes the biscuit. What's going on?

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

We have to pay for this news channel or we go to prison.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@TheJZackT Nope - it just exhausts out the window.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@afcmax22 Probably not even plugged into anything. Just an easy, super visible cue that says “don’t talk to me” to fans and the press.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@Devon_Eriksen_ I live in the UK. We’re getting air conditioning installed next week. In the meantime, we’ve had a portable unit. Yesterday, a neighbour asked what model we had (since he could see the exhaust poking out of the window). The tide is turning. Slowly at first - then all at once.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@robertpuklin @alojoh @stekkerauto Ah yes, I remember this part of the cycle

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@adrianfclarke The cab-forwardness is not a bad thing - it’s the same as the 296 in that regard. It’s the height to width ratio that kills it, as well as the muddled rear end. All EVs are pretty slab-sided (lacking the classic Ferrari ‘coke bottle’ profile), and that just compounds things here.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@suttobhai It’s not inherent to EVs. It’s inherent to the interior space. Ferrari decided that this was going to be their first 5 seater with a massive boot/trunk. Look at the Porsche Taycan for comparison - its roof is around 160 mm lower. But it’s cramped in the back and has a small boot.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@dpoddolphinpro Take a wild guess

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@SeasideChris Does he walk it around on a lead?

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@LukeMiani It’s not pointless, because the Ferrari looks like the Apple Car and not a Ferrari. Without the badge, you’d think this was another Chinese EV. Insane to me that the Model 3 actually looks better.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@niccruzpatane No. The design is reminiscent of a 2010s European minivan. These wipers were on the prior gen Ford Focus before Ford reverted back to normal wipers because these look so clumsy in operation.

[Joshua Lewis @jaylew333]

@SawyerMerritt I cannot believe they gave it the stupid clap hand wipers 😭