BOSTON, Oct. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Apollo Diamond, inventors of the technology that produces man-made, single crystal diamond, today announced that it has been named to R&D Magazine's annual R&D 100 list.
Considered one of the most esteemed awards for new products in academia, government and industry, the R&D 100 recognizes the most innovative and technologically significant new products around the world. Past winners include: the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the printer (1986), and HDTV (1998). The award will be presented in Chicago on October 19.
Apollo Diamond has developed a method for producing high purity, man-made colorless single crystal diamond wafers for optical and semiconductor applications -- opening doors to the practical, industrial and technological uses of diamond for the first time.
"We are honored to be recognized by R&D Magazine for the more than 10 years of research and development that went into the technology for growing highly pure, single crystal diamond, and for the impact that this technology could have in a variety of markets," said Robert Linares, Ph.D., chairman of Apollo Diamond. Due to its exceptional physical properties, diamond has always been considered an ideal material for advanced electronic applications. Previously, adoption of diamond has been slow because of the high level of impurities in mined diamonds, the relative scarcity of material and high cost. Apollo Diamond's technology and processes will breakdown those barriers.
Apollo is able to manufacture highly pure diamond using its proprietary chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The Apollo Diamond Wafer is a low nitrogen type IIa, optical grade, monocrystalline diamond wafer crystal perfect for applications requiring the best thermal conductivity, purity and crystal perfection found only in diamond. They can be used for a variety of high-performance optoelectronic, semiconductor and industrial applications including: heat sinks, scalpels, anvils, FETs, Schottky diodes, MEMS devices, power switches, substrates for high speed transistors and UV data storage.
About the R&D Award
R&D Magazine's "R&D 100 Awards" has been an annual tradition since 1963. A panel of about 50 outside judges chooses the 100 most technologically significant new products in academia, government and industry worldwide over the past year.
About Apollo Diamond, Inc.
Founded in 1990, privately owned Apollo Diamond is the first to develop and perfect a proprietary breakthrough technology by which large, single crystal diamonds that are structurally identical to high quality naturally mined diamonds can be grown in a controlled process environment. Apollo's advanced technology is based on a modified chemical vapor deposition technique to grow single crystal diamonds. Until now, industry efforts to recreate diamonds in the laboratory, particularly for gemstones and electronics, have resulted in only limited success. Apollo Diamond has successfully overcome many of the major technical barriers that had previously limited the size, quality and affordability of laboratory-produced diamonds. For more information about Apollo Diamond, Inc., visit the company's Web site at www.apollodiamond.com.