New hot semiconductor material MoS2 researched for atomic scale chips

Though Silicon is still a most preferred material for semiconductor IC manufacturing, researchers are looking for alternate material to make devices at atomic scale and using a cheaper non-lithographic processes to make complex SoC chips. Carbon based Graphene and Molybdenum Sulfide (MoS2) are the hot material selected by researchers to make devices in nano-scale using a process different from the present IC manufacturing. Graphene is good but is more of better conductor than an insulator, so switching-on transistor made out of Graphene is easy but switching-off is difficult because of less band-gap energy. Where as Molybdenum Sulfide has band energy gap of 1.2 eV matching Silicon and making it suitable for switching device such as transistor. The advantage of Molybdenum Sulfide over Silicon is deposition of a very thin layer of Molybdenum Sulfide is easier compared to Silicon. Researchers at North Carolina State University were able to create high-quality Molybdenum Sulfide semiconductor thin films of one atom thick. The method explained be Researchers is they place sulfur and Molybdenum Chloride powders in a furnace and gradually raise the temperature to 850 degrees Celsius, which vaporizes the powder. The two substances react at high temperatures to form MoS2. While still under high temperatures, the vapor is then deposited in a thin layer onto the substrate. The th...