Diamond & Quantum Weekly | Aug 24–30, 2026

The reporting window runs from 00:00 Beijing time on August 24 to 23:59 on August 30, 2026.

Weekly signal

The most useful change this week was the appearance of more functional-diamond evidence that can be placed against numbers and project stages.

Interim reports from several Chinese listed companies put equipment deployment, CVD revenue and profitability on a clearer footing. Sifangda reported tens of millions of renminbi in CVD diamond revenue and small-batch trial orders. Hengsheng Energy has put 200 new-generation MPCVD systems into operation, yet current CVD revenue remains only several million renminbi and costs exceed revenue. Huanghe Whirlwind again confirmed that functional-diamond production has begun, while saying that the business does not yet have a material effect on operations.

On the technology side, Huifeng Diamond announced “stable production” of 8-inch CVD polycrystalline diamond heat spreaders. Overseas, DARPA’s THREADS programme entered a new stage. Northrop Grumman received a $7 million Phase 2 contract to introduce diamond directly into microchannels on the back of devices, moving cooling closer to RF hotspots.

Interim reports start to show how far commercial delivery has progressed

Sifangda reported first-half CVD diamond revenue of RMB 63.5054 million and a gross margin of 12.30%. On August 27, the company said its diamond heat spreader had passed customer testing and secured small-batch trial orders.

Hengsheng Energy confirmed that 200 new-generation MPCVD systems are operating. Its CVD diamond business generated about RMB 5.0049 million in revenue against roughly RMB 9.4898 million in cost. Huanghe Whirlwind’s formal interim report again confirmed that functional-diamond production had started, but said the activity had not yet materially affected the company’s operations.

Equipment, testing and revenue are all becoming visible, but the companies remain at distinctly different distances from stable, scaled operations.

Huifeng reported “stable production” of an 8-inch polycrystalline heat spreader

On August 25, Huifeng Diamond said it had achieved stable production of an 8-inch CVD polycrystalline diamond heat spreader.

That wording advances beyond showing a large-area sample, but important manufacturing and commercial data remain absent: finished-product yield, in-plane uniformity, actual deliverable wafer count and customer qualification. “Stable production” should not yet be rewritten as stable mass production or volume delivery.

THREADS moved diamond further inside the device

Northrop Grumman announced a $7 million DARPA THREADS Phase 2 contract on August 27. The company said Phase 1 increased power density by 3.3 times and that Phase 2 aims to improve it by more than another threefold. Working with Stanford University, the team grows diamond layers in microchannels on the device backside to remove heat directly from hotspot regions.

Northrop is not the only THREADS participant. BAE Systems announced its entry into Phase 2 on August 12; the new disclosure this week concerns Northrop’s route.

The programme claims and targets still need supporting data on thermal boundary resistance, junction temperature, power density, device lifetime and manufacturability.

CVD diamond and MPCVD

Sifangda moved from customer tests to small-batch trial orders

The company’s August 27 wording is that its diamond heat spreader passed customer testing and obtained small-batch trial orders. This is a step beyond validation, but the next checks are repeat purchases, order size and the heat spreader’s actual share of CVD diamond revenue.

Hengsheng Energy has 200 systems operating while results continue to ramp

The interim report confirms that 200 new-generation MPCVD systems are operating. The company plans to add another 100 in the second half, but those systems remain a plan rather than current capacity.

The simultaneous disclosure of equipment scale and operating data is particularly useful: CVD diamond revenue is about RMB 5 million while cost is close to RMB 9.5 million. The equipment base has reached scale, but process ramp-up, product mix and customer conversion remain unresolved.

Worldia proposed a private placement of up to RMB 1.45 billion

On August 27, Worldia disclosed a private-placement proposal whose proceeds would support diamond micro-drill industrialisation, diamond functional components, a functional-materials R&D centre, working capital and debt repayment.

This is a change in planned industrial investment. Designed capacity for the micro-drill project is a future figure and is not treated here as current capacity.

Quantum technology

QuBBE renewal retained NV research but moved protein spin qubits to the foreground

The University of Chicago announced on August 25 that the NSF-backed QuBBE programme had received $37.5 million for a five-year renewal.

The official Phase 2 description is broader than simply continuing NV work. It retains research to improve diamond NV centres while putting greater emphasis on genetically encodable protein-based quantum sensors that can be expressed inside cells.

The team described precise placement inside living cells as a limitation encountered with diamond and molecular quantum sensors during Phase 1. Protein spin qubits are described as roughly ten times smaller than a diamond sensor and can be genetically encoded for localisation.

For diamond NV sensing, this creates a useful competitive reference: inside biological systems, sensor size and addressability may influence technology selection alongside sensitivity.

A circulated “new paper” was more than a year old

Scalable Parallel Measurement of Individual Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers, recirculated in Chinese social media this week, was not a new August paper. The APS record dates it to July 14, 2025, so it is excluded from this week’s developments.

Events and industry activity

• A diamond–semiconductor supply-chain matchmaking meeting was held in Suzhou on August 28. Public reports focused on industry exchange and did not show a signing or order that warranted separate treatment.
• ICDCM 2026 opened in Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain, on August 30 and runs through September 3. This issue records only the opening; presentations from August 31 onward fall into the next reporting window.
• The E-MRS 2026 Fall Meeting will be held at Warsaw University of Technology on September 14–17. Symposium B, “Diamond and nanocarbon materials for advanced sensing and opto-electronic devices”, is included in the forward calendar.

Social-media check

The recurring problem in Chinese social media was advancing a status by one stage: stable production became stable mass production, small-batch trial orders became commercial ramp-up, and high growth from a low base became a second growth engine.

Claims that the diamond heat-spreader supply gap exceeds 50% and that domestic semiconductor-grade heat-spreader yield is below 50% still lack a clear, reproducible original statistical basis and are not used here.

International social-media leads concentrated on THREADS Phase 2. Product promotion, old GaN-on-diamond papers and recirculated financing announcements did not reveal new customer, delivery or technical-status changes.

What to watch next

• Yield, batch consistency, actual output and customer qualification for Huifeng’s 8-inch heat spreader.
• Whether Sifangda’s small-batch trial orders lead to repeat orders or stable supply.
• Whether Hengsheng Energy’s CVD revenue, cost profile and functional-material share improve as equipment deployment grows.
• THREADS Phase 2 data on thermal boundary resistance, junction temperature, power density and device lifetime.
• Engineering performance of NV and protein spin-qubit routes in real biological measurements.
• ICDCM presentations from August 31 to September 3 and the E-MRS diamond symposium in mid-September.