HIGH AVERAGE POWER SWITCHING IN DIAMOND

Diamond has many properties which make it ideal for a high power solid-state switch. The crystal structure of diamond is relatively well characterized. It is a semiconductor with a band-gap of 5.5 eV at 300[degree]K. The high band-gap of diamond results in a small dark current compared to Si or GaAs. As a result the breakdown field or holding voltage is very high, 1--10 MV/cm. The electron and hole mobility are approximately 2000 cm[sup 2]/v-sec. At room temperature, diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any solid, 20 W/[degree]K -cm, about five times that of copper. This is ideal for switching because heat dissipation and thermal runaway problems are greatly mitigated. Our switch concept uses a low current (