Adam Khan is a pioneer in diamond semiconductor technology, renowned for his foresight and expertise. As the founder of AKHAN Semiconductor, he played a crucial role in innovating lab-grown diamond thin-films for various applications, such as enhancing smartphone screens and lenses with Miraj Diamond Glass® and improving aircraft survivability with Miraj Diamond Optics®. In 2019, under Adam’s leadership, AKHAN partnered with the U.S. Army and a major Defense Contractor to showcase the robust capabilities of its diamond technology, highlighting its importance in national security and defense. His vision secured a $20 million A-Round investment, accelerating the scaling of their consumer device technology to meet growing demand. Adam’s leadership and achievements have been widely recognized, including being named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Energy & Industry.
Tell us about your company?
Diamond Quanta is here to bring about the future of diamond technology. For us, that means applying our groundbreaking fabrication processes to advance the material’s potential, allowing it to confidently handle the long-term, modern issues facing semiconductors and quantum technology.
Through our novel fabrication and doping techniques, we are pushing diamond’s limits beyond what was previously thought possible of the material, expanding its efficiency, durability and sustainability capabilities to provide real-world solutions facing a wide spectrum of prominent industries.
What problems are you solving?
Power electronics face a major issue with energy loss during power conversion. This leads to inefficiency, malfunction and poor sustainability, among other things. Diamond Quanta is harnessing and advancing the exceptional properties of diamond’s wideband gap applications to tackle this issue head-on. Our approach creates a transformed diamond material that minimizes this power conversion energy loss, meaning the introductions of devices that are far more efficient while also being more compact and lightweight.
With these advantages in mind, our technology brings about power electronics that can withstand higher temperatures, operate at increased voltages and deliver superior performance across a broader range of frequencies, with a reduced carbon footprint on top of all of that.
What application areas are your strongest?
Right now, our technology is well-suited to address the issues plaguing data centers, the electric vehicle (EV) transition and aerospace manufacturing.
As data centers expand, their computational needs are growing, making it more and more difficult to efficiently power them. Using our diamond-based technology, semiconductors will have a much easier time handling these lofty power loads, as their superior efficiency and heat dissipation will allow them to confidently meet the computational needs that are asked of them, without requiring the inefficient cooling processes currently used to keep today’s chips functional in these applications.
That same efficiency and heat dissipation is vital to our technology’s application in the EV industry. Diamond-based electronics enable more compact and efficient power electronics, which directly translates to weight savings that are crucial for improving EV range. Range anxiety is one of the key consumer apprehensions to EV adoption; alleviating that anxiety will be crucial in further proliferating the electric transition.
In the ever-evolving worlds of commercial and defense aerospace technology, the application of diamond-based power electronics will similarly bring about major advantages through increased efficiency, weight reduction and heat dissipation, all leading to vehicles with longer lifespans that will require fewer maintenance and replacement costs.
What keeps your customers up at night?
Our customers, which include leaders in the semiconductor, aerospace, automotive, and consumer electronics industries, are often concerned about staying ahead of technological advancements and managing costs. They seek solutions that improve efficiency and performance while reducing energy consumption and thermal management issues. The reliability and scalability of new technologies are critical considerations that keep them up at night, as these factors directly impact their competitive edge and market presence.
What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?
The competitive landscape in advanced materials, particularly diamond-based semiconductors, is evolving with several key players focusing on innovative applications of materials science. Diamond Quanta differentiates itself through our proprietary “Unified Diamond Framework,” which allows for precise doping and manipulation of diamond structures at the molecular level. This enables us to enhance mechanical, optical, and electronic properties to meet specific industry needs, which is not commonly offered by competitors. Our approach not only delivers superior performance but also ensures greater durability and efficiency in high-power and high-frequency, photonic and quantum transport applications.
What new features/technology are you working on?
Currently, Diamond Quanta is developing new techniques for integrating our diamond-based materials into existing semiconductor processes without the need for extensive retooling. We are also enhancing our quantum photonic devices, which promise to drastically improve data processing speeds and energy efficiency for applications in quantum computing and advanced AI systems. Furthermore, we are exploring the potential of our materials in supporting sustainable technologies, particularly in electric vehicles, data centers, and renewable energy systems.
How do customers normally engage with your company?
Customers typically engage with Diamond Quanta through direct inquiries via our website, at industry conferences, and through our business development team. We also see significant engagement through collaborations in research and development projects where we work closely with customer engineering teams to tailor our materials and technologies to their specific needs.
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