May 23, 2003

Diamonds in the Eye: Lights Gleamed in the Darkness

Dieter Gruen

Worldwide efforts are being made to develop retinal implants to restore partial sight to people suffering from macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. One approach is to use electrodes to stimulate ganglion and bipolar retinal cells analogous to the functioning of highly successful cochlear implants for the hearing impaired.

The use of biocompatible ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films as electrodes and hermetic coatings for implanted C-MOS packages will be discussed. The advantages of UNCD for such devices will be described.

Bio Sketch
He received his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. He has been a visiting scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His research interests have included the coordination chemistry of metal ions in fused salts, the electronic structure of the actinides, the use of metal hydrides as chemical heat pumps, matrix isolation spectroscopy of reactive species, and resonance ionization mass spectrometry of sputtered atoms. In 1991 he conceived the idea of using fullerene precursors to grow nanocrystalline diamond films from inert-gas microwave discharges. He and his colleagues were able to elucidate new growth and nucleation mechanisms for nanocrystalline diamond based on carbon dimer, C2, the principal C60 fragmentation product. Gruen has served on the editorial boards of the Annual Review of Materials Science, the Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Letters. He has received two Department of Energy Materials Science Awards, two R&D 100 Awards, was named Inventor of the Year 1988 by the Chicago Patent Law Association, received a University of Chicago Award for Distinguished Performance at Argonne, a Merit Award from Northwestern University, the 2000 Medal of the Materials Research Society, and an Energy 100 Award from the Department of Energy in 2001. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 publications.

SMSI Minutes. "Diamonds in the Eye: Lights Gleamed in the Darkness" by Dieter Gruen on 23 May 03.
Bill Mikuska announced that the Fermi Lab microscope courses were finished and that an advanced course at Argonne Nat. Lab would be announced. He also spoke with Kathy Cargille Sacher and said that she, her father, and other Cargille staff, would be contributing to the July 2003 m sNotes.

Dieter Gruen discussed the microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CDV) system compared with a new 99%Ar & 1% CH4 vacuum system which produces an ultra nano crystalline diamond (UNCD) which is smoother than the CVD wafer. Diamond has advantages over silicon since it, Si, corrodes after twenty years; diamond acts as an electrode and stimulates the nerve cells like a cochlear implant. Diamond's tight grain boundary with N produces higher conductivity.

Respectfully submitted, Stan Schmidt, Recording Secretary.