Presents the most complex to date, the microchip is made of two-dimensional material

The Austrian researchers from the Vienna University of Technology have recently developed the most sophisticated microprocessor made from a two-dimensional material. Crystal microprocessor carries 115 of transistors, each of which the thickness of only 3 atoms. Transistors made from molybdenum disulphide (MoS2). The active layer of the chip has a thickness of 0.6 nanometers, more than 150 times thinner than almost all silicon chips.

Experts suggest that the use of graphene and molybdenum – a very promising direction. We recently wrote about that . Compounds based on molybdenum are the semiconductors from which it is possible to make elements of transistors and other electronic components.

First microchip of the two-dimensional material

Despite the fact that the microchip carries only 115 of the transistors, it is able to execute the written program stored in the external memory, to produce the logical operations on the data and output the results to other devices. The microprocessor architecture is scalable, so in future we can hope to improve performance. The power consumption is about 60 microwatt, and clock frequency of 2-20 kHz. According to the inventors,

«From the point of view of the performance of our device does not go to any comparison with the current silicon processors. However, this is the first step towards the creation of electronic devices of new generation. The smallest element of the structure has a size of about 2 micrometers. In the future, improving the quality of the connector contacts and reducing the element sizes of the transistors to 1 nanometer, you can achieve a dramatic increase in density and performance of chips of the processor».