Can Atomically Thin Transistors Keep Moore’s Law Alive?

From the very beginning, the semiconductor industry has squeezed more computing power out of silicon by making transistors smaller. But that strategy can't continue forever. Once silicon transistors shrink to just a few nanometers, fundamental physics starts getting in the way. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have now demonstrated that atomically thin materials could provide a way around that problem.

The team built transistors using molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), a two-dimensional semiconductor that can form a channel only a single atomic layer thick. Their devices had physical channel lengths below 5 nanometers while delivering switching performance that surpassed the theoretical limit of similarly sized silicon transistors.

The fabrication process (📷: S. Lin et al.)

Making transistors smaller isn't simply a matter of manufacturing ever-smaller features. A transistor switches between on and off states by using a gate to control current flowing through its channel. As silicon devices get smaller, the gate...

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