The Road for Two-Dimensional Semiconductors in Silicon Age.

Continued reduction in transistor size can improve the performance of silicon integrated circuits (ICs). However, as Moore's Law approaches physical limits, high-performance growth in silicon ICs becomes unsustainable, due to challenges of scaling, energy efficiency, and memory limitations. The ultra-thin layers, diverse band structures, unique electronic properties, and silicon compatible processes of two-dimensional (2D) materials create the potential to consistently drive advanced performance in ICs. This review presents the potential of fusing 2D materials with silicon ICs to minimize the challenges in silicon ICs, and to create technologies beyond the von Neumann architecture. It discusses the killer applications for 2D materials in logic and memory devices to ease scaling, energy efficiency bottlenecks, and memory dilemmas encountered in silicon ICs. The fusion of 2D materials allows the creation of all-in-one perception, memory and computation technologies beyond the von Neumann architecture to enhance system efficiency and remove computing power bottlenecks. Progress on the 2D ICs demonstration is summarized, as well as the technical hurdles it faces in terms of wafer-scale heterostructure growth, transfer, and compatible integration with silicon ICs. Finally, the promising pathways and obstacles to the technological advances in ICs due to the integration of 2D materials with silicon is presented. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.