Information about growing atomically thin transistors on chips is as follows:
An interdisciplinary team at MIT has developed a low-temperature growth process that can be effectively grown directly on silicon chips And efficiently "grow" two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) material layers to achieve denser integration.
This technology may make chips denser and more powerful. The relevant paper was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
This technology bypasses previous issues associated with high temperatures and material transport defects, shortens growth times, and allows for uniform layer formation on larger 8-inch wafers, making it commercially viable Ideal for applications.
Emerging artificial intelligence applications, such as chatbots that generate human speech, require denser and more powerful computer chips. But semiconductor chips are traditionally made from bulk materials, which are square, three-dimensional (3D) structures, making it difficult to stack multiple layers of transistors for denser integration.
However, transistors made from ultra-thin 2D materials, each only about three atoms thick, can be stacked to create more powerful chips.
Getting 2D materials to grow directly on silicon wafers is a major challenge because the process typically requires high temperatures of around 600°C, and silicon transistors and circuits can be damaged when heated above 400°C. The newly developed low-temperature growth process does not damage the chip.
In the past, researchers grew 2D materials elsewhere before transferring them to chips or wafers. This often leads to defects that affect the performance of the final device and circuit.
In addition, it is extremely difficult to smoothly transfer materials at the wafer scale. In contrast, the new process grows a smooth, highly uniform layer on an 8-inch wafer.
This new technology can also significantly reduce the time required to "grow" these materials. While previous methods took more than a day to grow a layer of 2D material, the new method can grow a uniform layer of TMD material on an 8-inch wafer in less than an hour.