Graphene-like 2D materials will never live up to their promise in electronics if researchers don’t start focusing on growing high-quality layers, Cambridge researchers argue.
Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have become serious contenders to replace silicon in future chips. Several properties have prompted leading firms such as Imec and TSMC to look into TMD monolayers as a way to keep transistor innovation going once silicon’s decades-long run hits a wall.
For the 2D materials to find their way into the fab, however, challenges remain. In an invited paper in Nature Electronics, Yan Wang and colleagues from the University of Cambridge argue that most of these can be traced back to a single issue: the poor quality of TMD monolayers. It’s a hurdle “the community has been reluctant to discuss openly in the context of performance of electronic devices,” the authors write.
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