Overheating is one of the biggest problems facing modern electronics, from smartphones to powerful data centers.
Now, researchers at Rice University have developed a new way to grow patterned diamond surfaces that could dramatically improve cooling in electronic devices.
Their method was inspired by something unexpected: a decorative diamond owl created as a lab keepsake.
Diamond is one of the best materials in the world for conducting heat, which means it can pull heat away from delicate components extremely efficiently.
This makes it ideal for cooling high-power electronics such as advanced radar systems, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence hardware. However, diamond is also extremely hard, making it difficult to shape and integrate into devices using traditional manufacturing methods.
The Rice team, led by materials scientist Xiang Zhang and professor Pulickel Ajayan, took a different approach.
Instead of carving shapes out of a solid diamond layer—a slow and difficult process—they grew diamond directly into specific patterns from the start. This “bottom-up” method builds the material atom by atom, allowing scientists to control where the diamond forms and how it spreads.
Their technique uses microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition, a process that turns carbon-rich gas into a superheated plasma using powerful microwaves.
In this environment, carbon atoms rain down onto a surface and arrange themselves into diamond crystals. For the crystals to grow, they need tiny starting points called seeds. The researchers used nanodiamonds—microscopic diamond particles—to act as these seeds.
To place the seeds exactly where they wanted diamond to grow, the team used two different patterning methods. For small and detailed designs, they relied on photolithography, a technique widely used in chip manufacturing that uses light to create precise patterns on a surface. For larger areas, they used a special film cut by laser into the desired shapes. After removing the extra material, the remaining template guided where the diamond would form.
Using this approach, the researchers successfully grew patterned diamond layers across wafers as large as two inches wide. By adjusting how many seeds were applied, they could even control the size and structure of the diamond crystals within each pattern.
When tested, these diamond coatings reduced operating temperatures in electronics by as much as 23 degrees Celsius—a major improvement that could help devices run faster and last longer. Lower temperatures mean less wear on components, better performance, and greater reliability.
The project’s origin as a piece of scientific art highlights the unexpected ways creativity can lead to innovation. What began as an effort to produce intricate diamond shapes, including an owl representing the university’s mascot, has now become a practical solution for managing heat in advanced technologies.
Researchers believe this technique could be applied to a wide range of materials used in electronics, including silicon and gallium nitride, which are common in high-power devices. The next step is improving how diamond layers connect with other materials so they can be used in next-generation semiconductors.
If successful, this technology could pave the way for cooler, faster, and more durable electronics—helping everything from personal gadgets to massive computing systems handle the growing demands of the digital age.
