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Large-scale flexible and transparent electronics based on monolayer molybdenum disulfide field-effect transistors

Abstract

Atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a promising semiconductor material for integrated flexible electronics due to its excellent mechanical, optical and electronic properties. However, the fabrication of large-scale MoS2-based flexible integrated circuits with high device density and performance remains a challenge. Here, we report the fabrication of transparent MoS2-based transistors and logic circuits on flexible substrates using four-inch wafer-scale MoS2 monolayers. Our approach uses a modified chemical vapour deposition process to grow wafer-scale monolayers with large grain sizes and gold/titanium/gold electrodes to create a contact resistance as low as 2.9 kΩ μm−1. The field-effect transistors are fabricated with a high device density (1,518 transistors per cm2) and yield (97%), and exhibit high on/off ratios (1010), current densities (~35 μA μm−1), mobilities (~55 cm2 V−1 s−1) and flexibility. We also use the approach to create various flexible integrated logic circuits: inverters, NOR gates, NAND gates, AND gates, static random access memories and five-stage ring oscillators.

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Fig. 1: Schematic and fabricated MoS2 transistor devices on flexible substrates of PET.
Fig. 2: Performance characterization of the MoS2 transistors.
Fig. 3: Electrical performance of flexible devices under strain.
Fig. 4: MoS2-based flexible logic gates and oscillators.

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The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant nos. 61734001, 11834017, 11574361 and 51572289), the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of CAS (grant no. XDB30000000), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of CAS (grant no. QYZDB-SSW-SLH004), the National Key R&D program of China (grant no. 2016YFA0300904) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (grant no. 2018013).

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Contributions

G.Z. supervised the project. Q.W. performed the growth of the 4-inch MoS2 wafers. N.L. fabricated the flexible devices with help from Z.W., H.Y., C.S., J. Zhao. and G.W. N.L. performed the electrical measurements with help from C.S. and X.L. N.L., Q.W., R.Y. and G.Z. analysed data. N.L., Q.W., C.S., R.Y. and G.Z. wrote the manuscript and all authors commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rong Yang or Guangyu Zhang.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–16, discussion, Table 1 and references 1–20.

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Li, N., Wang, Q., Shen, C. et al. Large-scale flexible and transparent electronics based on monolayer molybdenum disulfide field-effect transistors. Nat Electron 3, 711–717 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00475-8

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