A New Alternative to Semiconductor Silicon Materials

In the field of integrated circuits, there’s a principle that has been followed for decades—the Moore’s Law. This law states that the density of transistors integrated onto a given area doubles every two years, while keeping the product’s price unchanged. It is precisely driven by this law that we have entered today’s high-tech, modern society. However, in recent years, due to limitations inherent in silicon materials, researchers have been actively exploring and developing new, promising semiconductor materials as potential replacements for silicon.
    Recently, by UNIST School of Materials Science and Engineering Soon-Yong Kwon The research group led by the professor successfully achieved two-dimensional ( 2D ) Metal electrode ( metal electrode was conducted patterning For a long time, two-dimensional electrodes have been considered the key to achieving high-performance ultrafine ( ultra-fine ) The barrier of semiconductors. They have a diameter of 4 The desired shape is formed on an inch-sized silicon substrate.
    To improve the performance of semiconductor chips, we must make the individual components that comprise them extremely small. However, miniaturization and integration of today’s silicon-based electronic devices face significant challenges. Therefore, it is crucial to develop post-Moore semiconductor technologies using thin materials such as graphene. New... 2D The metal electrode is only one atom thick, making it suitable for use as a thin-film material in semiconductor devices, such as graphene. According to the research team, this holds promise for accelerating the miniaturization of semiconductor devices.
    Semiconductor devices can function properly only when electrons flow precisely along the specific locations and directions required. However, as you strive to make devices smaller and integrate more transistors per unit area, you inevitably seek to shrink the transistors themselves. At this point, electrons begin to deviate from the behavior we expect, giving rise to what’s known as the tunneling effect. To address this challenge, recent research has focused on ultrathin... 2D There has been much discussion about the use of semiconductor materials, but electrodes suitable for this purpose have yet to be developed.
    Semiconductors exhibit properties that lie between those of ordinary conductors such as metals and insulators. Consequently, if only the semiconductor material is altered, a relatively high barrier—known as the Schottky barrier—is formed, which makes electron transport more difficult. Therefore, to achieve high-performance, ultra-thin semiconductor devices, it is also necessary to develop new synthesis methods. 2D Electrode material.
In this study, the research group reported the wafer-scale production of metal transition metal dichalcogenides on different substrates. metallic transition metal ditellurides ) patterned layers the situation. According to the research group, “Our tungsten ditelluride ( tungsten ditelluride ) and the molybdenum ditelluride layer ( molybdenum ditelluride layers ) is achieved by means of a precursor transition metal layer ( precursor transition metal layer, ) Perform tellurization ( tellurization ) grown by processing, whose electronic properties are comparable to those of mechanically exfoliated flakes, and which can be combined with 2D Semiconductor dichalcogenide bonding.
    “It has been confirmed that certain metals—such as copper—( With Cu ) or nickel ( You ) Add an appropriate amount of tellurium ( tellurium ), even at relatively low temperatures, it can be liquefied,” said the study’s first author, UNIST Mechanical Engineering's Seunguk Song He further pointed out, “Our technology offers a simple and effective method for growing high-quality transition metal dichalcogenides, whose electrical properties are comparable to those obtained by mechanical exfoliation.” mechanically exfoliated ) is comparable to thin slices.”
    According to the research group, the metal that has been formed... - The semiconductor junction exhibits no significant disorder effects. disorder effects ) and FLP ( Fermi-level pinning ), and their SBH Basically follow Schottky-Mott limit Newly synthesized 2D The electrode material exhibits virtually no physical defects during the synthesis process, and thus demonstrates behavior that is mechanically distinct. 2D The material exhibits outstanding physical and electrical properties. In addition, several minutes of the entire process are conducted at temperatures below... 500 ° C It is performed at a temperature of [temperature]. Since it can be implemented within existing semiconductor processing, it also reduces operating costs.
    The research group also conducted a study on... 2D Semiconductor molybdenum disulfide ( Molybdenum disulfide ) Placed in the new 2D Experiments conducted on the electrodes revealed that the energy barrier (Schottky barrier) at the interface between the metal and the semiconductor is remarkably low—close to the theoretical value—thus facilitating easy electron transfer. In conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes, ions are implanted to increase the number of electrons tunneling across the energy barrier; however, this approach becomes increasingly challenging as device sizes shrink and circuit linewidths decrease. In contrast, the electrode material developed this time can enhance the efficiency of electron transfer in semiconductor junctions without relying on such an ion-implantation process.
Professor Kwon It was said: “Because the newly synthesized metal electrodes and semiconductor junctions have few defects, they exhibit ideal behavior.” Schottky-Mott Conditions.” “In particular, it is possible to control the bullpen ( Schottky Barrier ), which is more challenging than achieving it through commercial metal wiring technologies, but this will help realize [something] via the following methods: N Type and P Further research on next-generation semiconductors with dual characteristics.