Method irons out 2-D materials for computer chips

Abstract

Two-dimensional electronic materials could be key ingredients in future energy-efficient computer chips—if engineers can learn to build devices with them. On Dec. 4 at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco, researchers from the Belgian semiconductor research company Imec presented a method for making and transferring smooth, high-quality sheets of tungsten disulfide and other 2-D materials. Devices with 2-D materials have been made in the lab but they tend to be one-offs. “We’re always limited by the precision of lab tools,” says Imec device physicist Iuliana Radu. Her team sought a way to transfer large sheets of 2-D materials from the surface on which they are grown, to the surface of a silicon wafer patterned with electronic circuits, without wrinkling the 2-D material or melting the underlying silicon devices. They grew a WS2 film, 0.7 nm thick and 300 mm in diameter, on a silicon wafer. They attached the