Chinese scientists are developing advanced 2D semiconductor materials with 1,000-fold growth speed, promising applications in optoelectronics such as LEDs, photodetectors and lasers, to overcome Moore's Law limitations.
Moore’s Law predicted a doubling of semiconductor capacity every two years, but as chip dimensions continue to shrink, physical limitations make further performance scaling increasingly difficult.
In a 2D semiconductor, its ability to conduct electricity can be altered by adding tiny amounts of other elements, a process called doping, which can result in n-type (negative) and p-type (positive) materials. While many n-type 2D semiconductors, such as molybdenum disulphide and molybdenum diselenide, exist, high-performance and stable p-type ones are rare.
“Transistors in a chip require both n-type and p-type materials to work in pairs. The lack of high-performance p-type materials has become a critical bottleneck for the development of sub-5-nm node 2D semiconductors, and it is also a fiercely contested scientific and technological frontier,” said Zhu Mengjian from the National University of Defence Technology in a report by Science and Technology Daily on Thursday.
The advanced material offers promise in optoelectronics, where it can be used in LEDs, photodetectors and lasers, supporting China’s push for next-gen ‘2D chips’ with 1,000-fold growth speed.