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Semiconductor leap: China looks to next-gen ‘2D chip’ with 1,000-fold growth speed

Chinese scientists say they have developed a wafer-scale 2D semiconductor growth method with 1,000 times faster growth, paving the way for industry advances.
The surging demand…

By Samantha Johnson / April 12, 2026
Chinese scientists say they have developed a wafer-scale 2D semiconductor growth method with 1,000 times faster growth, paving the way for industry advances.
The surging demand for high‑performance, low‑power chips driven by AI and large-language models has intensified the search for next‑generation semiconductor technologies.

Moore’s Law predicted a doubling of semiconductor capacity every two years but as chip dimensions continue to shrink, physical limitations make further performance scaling increasingly difficult.

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Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have emerged as a leading candidate for post‑Moore chip materials, as they could allow continued transistor scaling.

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In a 2D semiconductor, its ability to conduct electricity can be altered by adding tiny amounts of other elements, a process called doping, which can result in n-type (negative) and p-type (positive) materials.

While many n‑type 2D semiconductors, such as molybdenum disulphide and molybdenum diselenide exist, high‑performance and stable p‑type ones are rare.

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“Transistors in a chip require both n‑type and p‑type materials to work in pairs. The lack of high‑performance p‑type materials has become a critical bottleneck for the development of sub‑5‑nm node 2D semiconductors, and it is also a fiercely contested scientific and technological frontier,” said Zhu Mengjian from the National University of Defence Technology in a report by Science and Technology Daily on Thursday.

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