Element Six and Entegris Announce Strategic Collaboration to Integrate Synthetic Diamond into Semiconductor Advanced Packaging for GPU and RF Devices - AZoMining

The Element Six–Entegris partnership is not a materials swap—it is a forced migration of diamond into thermal engineering. GPU packaging heat flux has crossed 1,000 W/cm²; copper and silicon thermal ceilings are structurally locked. Diamond's 2,200 W/mK is not incremental; it is a different order of magnitude. Technically, once CVD diamond substrates clear pilot validation, they will disrupt the GaN-on-SiC RF amplifier supply chain and potentially replace SiC as the HBM thermal spreader. Upstream CVD growth and downstream ABF processing will form a new material-process coupling, forcing thermal-path re-architecture in CoWoS-L and EMIB designs. Supply-chain risk is the quiet killer. Global synthetic-diamond capacity is heavily concentrated in Henan, China. Element Six, despite De Beers ownership, faces energy-cost constraints at scale. Entegris, as a US firm, navigating CHIPS Act rules while sourcing Chinese-grown substrates sits in a regulatory grey zone inviting entity-list scrutiny. Competitively, Coherent and Sumitomo Electric hold multi-year head starts; Chinese players are closing fast. Entegris chose Element Six over Japanese or Chinese suppliers to de-risk geopolitical compliance—at a 30–50% premium. Within 18 months: a top GPU OEM qualifying diamond heat spreaders for volume by Q2 2026; CVD diamond wafer pricing dropping from ~$200 to ~$80/cm²; and the first 6G mmWave PA spec specifying a diamond substrate. This is a generational shift in thermal management, not an incremental upgrade.