As funding flows into deep tech to tackle tough global problems like climate change, PhD entrepreneurs from Europe's top universities and labs are increasingly turning their research into companies. .
One example is Diamfab, a French spinout founded in 2019. Co-founders CEO Gauthier Chicot and CTO Khaled Drish both have PhDs in nanoelectronics, are prominent researchers in the field of semiconductor diamonds, and are French National He left the Neil Institute, a laboratory of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), and obtained the following two licensed patents. their belts.
Since then, Chicot and Dreich have registered more patents and brought on a third co-founder, Ivan Llaurad, as chief revenue officer and partnership director. He also raised €8.7 million in funding from Asterion Ventures, his French Tech Seed fund at Bpifrance, Kreaxi, Better Angle, Hello Tomorrow and Grenoble Alpes Métropole.
This increased interest comes as the paradigm around semiconductor diamonds has changed over the past two years. “Diamonds are no longer a laboratory object. With startups and manufacturers interested in this space, and partners around them, diamonds are becoming an industrial reality,” Chicot told TechCrunch.
leave the laboratory
Because silicon is ubiquitous and cheap, it remains the most widely used semiconductor material in electronics. But there is hope that other options, not just in the lab, could someday outperform it. Tesla's decision to use silicon carbide instead of silicon is an important step in that direction, and diamond could be next.
Because diamond is inherently resistant to high temperatures and energy efficient, Diamfab envisions a future where synthetic diamonds require much less surface area than silicon carbide for certain components, making them more cost-competitive. Masu.
The company's long-term goal is to make more efficient semiconductors with lower carbon emissions, while also supporting what Chicot calls the “electrification of society,” including transportation.
Diamond-based electronics open the door to applications in the field of power electronics. Consider smaller batteries and chargers with more autonomy as there is less need for temperature control. This is particularly relevant in the automotive sector and electric mobility. But diamond wafers could also be used in nuclear batteries, space technology and quantum computing.
The claim that diamond is a better substitute for silicon doesn't just come out of nowhere. Diamfab builds on his 30 years of research and development in the growth of synthetic diamonds at the Institut Néel. Its founders wanted to take this technology out of the lab. “We wanted to be a helpful trailblazer,” Chicotte said.
Winning the i-Lab Jury Grand Prize in 2019 was a major turning point for the company. Co-sponsoring with a French institution provided a grant and a sense of recognition, both internally and externally to the team.
With this seal of approval, “the bank will trust you even if you don't make sales,” Chicotte said. “Winning this award was a real positive initially.” That's partly because we have great technology, but also because it's important technology for the world. ”
diamond promise
French public investment bank Bpifrance, one of the organizers of the i-Lab Awards, has announced that Diamfab We are strengthening our efforts to
As silicon becomes a commodity, Diamfab's high-value diamond wafers can be manufactured in Europe and sold at a guaranteed premium due to their high efficiency, which also leads to a green transition. Decarbonization is one of France's main goals for 2030, and diamonds could help.
Because diamond requires less surface area compared to silicon carbide, and because Diamfab synthesizes diamond from methane, it has a lighter carbon footprint. In the future, this feedstock could become biomethane and the by-products of recycling could be used commercially.
Image credit: Diamfab
However, most of that is still in the future. Diamfab is less than a few decades away from its goal, but he says it will take five years for its technology to be able to support mass production of diamond wafers that meet industry requirements. This means applying the know-how of growing and doping diamond layers on 1-inch wafers to the 4-inch wafers that Silicon Carbide has already developed. Even if there were enough funds to support a small pilot production line, this would take several years.
This five-year period made Diamfab unusable for some VCs. While these investors may be sympathetic to the idea of reindustrializing Europe with cutting-edge innovation, liquidity cycles make this type of investment more difficult. However, Chicot ultimately managed to raise 8.7 million euros, which helped the startup pass the pre-industrial stage.
Grenoble, the center of deep technology
Cicotte said the group of investors that had rallied around DiamFab was “balanced”, with general participants, Evergreen Fund Asterion Labs and DiamFab's region, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It said supporters of that city, Grenoble, were also included.
While there's understandable AI hype in Paris, Grenoble may be the closest thing to France's Silicon Valley. Thanks in no small part to the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Louis Niel, the Alpine city became a center of deep tech with its focus on electronics, and is now a center of technology for both Green and Sovereign tech. It's also part of the conversation.
Grenoble startups that come to mind include Verkor, which secured more than 2 billion euros for a giant factory in northern France, and Renaissance Fusion, which raised $16.4 million last year to build fusion technology in Europe. However, DiamFab could further benefit from partnerships with major companies with local ties, such as CEA, Schneider Electric, Soitec and STMicroelectronics.
There is no doubt that even more semiconductors will be produced from the French Alps. With both the EU and the US adopting chip laws to reduce dependence on Asia, France is set to provide €2.9 billion in aid for the upcoming joint venture factory between STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries, and Soitec recently A fourth factory was opened nearby. Now DiamFab hopes it too can play a role and unlock diamond's full potential in semiconductors.