(Invited) Diamond Technology – Integration into Solid-State Breakers and Biomedical Devices
Authors: Zimmermann Tom , Rogien Alexis , Jansen Grace , Wang Xiaoxue , Hua Liping , Wu Yuelin , Muehle Matthias , Grotjohn Timothy A. 
Published: February 2020

A commercial viable solid-state direct current circuit breaker with fast switching performance for the use in the 1-100kV range requires a low loss on-resistance close to commercial available mechanical breakers [1]. Diamond provides excellent semiconductor properties for those breaker applications with a material characteristics superior in high electric field breakdown strength, higher thermal conductivity, and high charge carrier mobility as compared to silicon, silicon carbide, and gallium nitride [2-4]. These properties will enable diamond electronic devices that will be more energy efficient while keeping the active area of devices to lower values, which offers a potential cost advantage in case of a better availability of large-area substrates [5,6]. Diamond diodes [7-9], diamond field effect transistors [10], and gate turn-off thyristor devices [11-13] are proposed to be the core unit in a medium voltage direct current (MVDC) solid-state circuit breaker [14,15]. A reduced energy loss in solid-state breakers by using diamond will enable a competitive placement of diamond breakers on the MVDC market with a decisive advantage of a much faster response to electrical circuit faults and more robust DC electrical energy delivery systems with >1MW capacity. The diamond-based diode and FET development focuses on devices in the 1-5kV range and the diamond thyristors cover a 15-20kV range. Higher voltages would ultimately be achieved with series circuit arrangements of the diamond devices.

Diamond offers also excellent properties for applications in the biomedical sector [16]. The manufacturing of tailored biopharmaceuticals, stem cells, or human tissue is being attempted through the utilization of single-use perfusion bioreactors due to its minimal spacial and financial costs, and its ability to execute critical parallel processing methods [17,18]. However, continuous monitoring of analytes in multifaceted protein mixtures and achieving full automation of production are challenges inhibiting commercialization of tailored products to a reasonable price. Constant and instantaneous monitoring of a bioreactor both ensures flexibility with the opportunity for quick adjustments and eliminates contamination risks from manual sampling. Also, it is essential that the bioactive layer of an integrated biosensor monitoring system sustains the lifetime of the processing cycle, as well as display a shelf life compatible with standard inventory consumption. Achieving and maintaining the specific conditions necessary to produce complex bio-products requires a robust real-time monitoring with redundancy and automated control of a variety of nutrients, intermediate metabolites, and cell products within the bioreactor. Diamond biosensors exhibit low biofouling rates and show promising results in the in-situ monitoring of the bioprocess conditions for the full operation time of single-use bioreactors [19]. Operational human IL-8 antibodies have been successfully adhered to the diamond sensor surface [20]. A high antibody concentration and activity as a measure of biosensor sensitivity is obtained using a modified ELISA procedure. The results indicate a reasonable robust diamond biosensor performance suitable for in-situ applications in the complex environment of bioreactors [21].

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