Element Six Spins Out New Company to Develop Diamond Detectors

Element Six Spins Out New Company to Develop Diamond Detectors

May 04, 2007

    ASCOT, England, May 4 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Diamond
Detectors Ltd is a spin-out company set up by Element Six
(E6) to exploit the potential of synthetic diamond in novel
detectors for a range of markets. The company will focus on
the development of customised detector solutions and will
initially target four main markets: high energy physics,
nuclear monitoring, radiotherapy dosimetry and deep-UV
detection.

    "Spinning out Diamond Detectors will help
accelerate the commercialisation of diamond detectors and
devices," explains Christian Hultner, CEO of E6.
"This new venture demonstrates the rapid pace of
development and exploitation of the truly remarkable
properties of diamond as an advanced engineering material.
It is an exciting time: we are standing at the threshold of
an era when a raft of new diamond products has become
possible, thanks to breakthroughs in chemical vapour
deposition (CVD) processes for diamond synthesis. E6 is at
the forefront of developments in CVD diamond and is
committed to future investment in this technology."

    Diamond as a detector

    "Diamond has long been recognised as a
semiconductor material that can detect many types of
radiation from UV and X-rays to particle detection,"
says Kevin Oliver, Technical Director of Diamond Detectors.
"The ability to make diamond material of the size,
quality and consistency required for advanced detection
applications opens up significant new potential markets for
novel detectors in a wide range of industries. It also
enables us to overcome the inherent problems associated
with the selection of appropriate natural diamonds in
existing detector applications."

    The initial products under development cover
applications in high energy physics research such as the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project at CERN, the new
Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) under
development at GSI in Germany as well as the Diamond Light
Source, the largest UK funded scientific facility to be
built for over 30 years. Industrial applications include
alpha, beta and neutron detection in the nuclear industry.
Also on the horizon are development projects for detectors
for use in medical dosimetry, data logging in oil well
exploration, UV applications such as photolithography and
cleaning for semiconductor manufacturing. "Diamond
Detectors is already working closely with a number of
industrial partners on the future commercialisation of
these potential products," says Kevin Oliver.

    Element Six is the world leader in the production of
all forms of synthetic diamond for industrial use. Element
Six has pioneered the development of CVD diamond technology
since the 1980s, with a world-renowned research centre at
Ascot dedicated to this activity. CVD diamond opens up many
new application areas outside the traditional abrasive uses
of synthetic diamond. Uses of CVD diamond include laser
exit windows, cutting tools, surgical blades, windows for
high-power gyrotrons, heat-spreaders for electronic devices
as well as active electronic devices.


     For more information, please contact:

     Kevin Oliver
     Technical Director
     Diamond Detectors Ltd
     Tel:   [phone] 
     Fax:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]
     Web:   http://www.diamonddetectors.com