Potential of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Transistors for Flexible Electronics Applications

Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) are 2D materials, combining good charge carrier mobility, ultimate dimension down-scalability, and low-temperature integration. These properties make TMDCs interesting for flexible electronics, where the thermal fabrication budget is strongly substrate limited. In this perspective, an overview of the state of TMDC research is provided by evaluating two scenarios, both with their own merit depending on the target application. First, high-quality chemically grown 2D TMDCs are promising for nanoscale high-performance and high-frequency devices with excellent gate control and high current on/off ratios. Second, TMDC thin films can also be solution deposited from chemically exfoliated flakes allowing for moderate performance, but providing a path toward low-cost production. A strong advantage of TMDCs is the possibility to realize p-type and n-type channels for complementary transistors having similar performance figures-of-merit. This aspect, as well as common transistor performance metrics are also compared with other flexible channel materials providing an overview of the state of the art of thin-film transistors in the field of flexible electronics.