Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a 2D semiconductor that has been long researched due to their potential to overcome the performance of conventional silicon based electronics. However, the unscalable nature and low performance than expectancy has hindered its emergence as the next generation semiconducting material. Researchers at Yonsei university and Sungkyunkwan university report wafer-scale MoS2 electronics that show high performance. The study is reported in the journal ‘Nature Electronics’.

Although high performing MoS2 electronics have been reported, MoS2 electronics produced in a scalable manner show low performance. To overcome this issue, a sodium embedded alumina (SEA) dielectric was developed and both MoS2 and SEA layers were fabricated by slot-die coating method, which is a scalable and industry-friendly technique. The researchers fabricated a transistor device, which exhibited high electron mobility of 80 cm2 V-1 s-1. This mobility value is remarkably enhanced compared to solution processed MoS2 transistors fabricated on conventional SiO2 dielectrics. To prove the applicabiltiy, various logic circuits were fabricated and operated with the proposed devices.

The researchers further analyzed the fabricated transistor device to explore the cause of high performance. As a result of thorough chemical and electrical analyzing, it has been proved that the SEA dielectric enables efficient charge transport through the MoS2 channel layer. 

"We showed, for the first time, scalable MoS2 electronics with comparable performance to the conventional silicon based electronics". "Our study is expected to provide a new pathway to enhance the performance of practical MoS2 electronics for the research community“, Prof. Cho and prof. Kang said.

The fabrication method and structural scheme of a SEA/MoS2 transistor, and its application as logic circuits.

[Reference] Y.A.Kwon. et al., (2023) “Wafer-scale transistor arrays fabricated using slot-die printing of molybdenum disulfide and sodium-embedded alumina.” Nature Electronics, DOI:10.1038/s41928-023-00971-7

[Main Author] Yonghyun Albert Kwon (Yonsei university), Jihyun Kim (Sungkyunkwan university)

* Contact email : Professor Jeong Ho Cho (jhcho94@yonsei.ac.kr), Professor Joohoon Kang (joohoon@skku.edu)