Great Lakes Crystal Technologies (GLCT) is a high-tech start-up out of Michigan State University (MSU). GLCT was founded in 2019 to license and commercialize advanced diamond manufacturing technology developed at MSU.
In this seminar, we will introduce various R&D and production projects underway at GLCT. GLCT has received 11 federal R&D contracts to explore several technologies based on single crystal diamonds. The technology under development includes diamonds for quantum sensing, particle and photon detectors, and radiation-tolerant electronics. Additionally, we have received private investment funds to develop a substrate manufacturing process, which is GLCT’s main product offering.
The common focus of all GLCT’s development is to produce the highest quality, lowest defect single crystal diamond. The method of synthesis we use is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). CVD is one of the multiple ways to synthesize assesses, yet it is likely the only method suitable for making diamonds for device technologies. CVD diamond has traditionally been inferior in quality to other methods, however.
At GLCT, the focus has been to overcome the barriers related to high-quality CVD growth so that the full potential of diamond technology is realized. We will discuss our progress in developing state-of-the-art CVD diamonds, starting from the basic substrate and intrinsic material development, and moving now into a conductive diamond for electronics applications.
Paul Quayle is the Chief Scientist at GLCT. He received his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics in 2015 from Case Western Reserve University. His dissertation work was on the synthesis and characterization of the heterovalent ternary semiconductor – zinc tin nitride.
After graduating, Paul started as a Research Scientist at Kyma Technologies, located in Raleigh, NC, where he worked on the development of several industrial semiconductor products. At Kyma, Paul started collaborating with MSU professor Timothy Grotjohn and eventually moved to Michigan to work as a postdoc developing diamond manufacturing practices.
In June 2020, Paul joined GLCT as the first employee and has been the principal investigator for all 11 of GLCT’s federal contracts. He has also overseen the development to the GLCT pilot line.