Engineers grow full wafers of high-performing 2D semiconductor that integrates with state-of-the-art chips
The semiconductor industry today is working to respond to a threefold mandate: increasing computing power, decreasing chip sizes and managing power in densely packed circuits.
To meet these demands, the industry must look beyond silicon to produce devices appropriate for the growing role of computing.
While unlikely to abandon the workhorse material anytime in the near or distant future, the technology sector will require creative enhancements in chip materials and architectures to produce devices appropriate for the growing role of computing.
One of the biggest shortcomings of silicon is that it can only be made so thin because its material properties are fundamentally limited to three dimensions [3D]. For this reason, two-dimensional [2D] semiconductors — so thin as to have almost no height — have become an object of interest to scientists, engineers and microelectronics manufacturers.
Thinner chip components would provide greater control and precision over the flow of electricity in a device, while lowering the amount of energy required to power it. A 2D semiconductor would also contribute to keeping the surface area of a chip to a minimum, lying in a thin film atop a supporting silicon device.
But until recently, attempts to create such a material have been unsuccessful.
Certain 2D semiconductors have performed well on their own, but required such high temperatures to deposit they destroyed the underlying silicon chip. Others could be deposited at silicon-compatible temperatures, but their electronic properties — energy usage, speed, precision — were lacking. Some fit the bill for temperature and performance but could not be grown to the requisite purity at industry-standard sizes. More