High mobilitY Printed nEtwoRks of 2D Semiconductors for advanced electrONICs

Future technological innovations in areas such as the Internet of things and wearable electronics require cheap, easily deformable and reasonably performing printed electronic circuitries.

However, current state-of-the-art (SoA) printed electronic devices show mobilities of ~10 cm2/Vs, about ×100 lower than traditional Si-electronics.

A promising solution to print devices from 2D semiconducting nanosheets gives relatively low mobilities (~0.1 cm2/Vs) due to the rate-limiting nature of charge transfer (CT) across inter-nanosheet junctions.

By minimising the junction resistance RJ, the mobility of printed devices could match that of individual nanosheets, i.e., up to 1000 cm2/Vs for phosphorene, competing with Si.

HYPERSONIC is a high-risk, high-gain interdisciplinary project exploiting new chemical and physical approaches to minimise RJ in printed nanosheet networks, leading to ultra-cheap printed devices with a performance ×10–100 beyond the SoA.

The chemical approach relies on chemical crosslinking of nanosheets with (semi)conducting molecules to boost inter-nanosheet CT.

The physical approach involves synthesising high-aspect-ratio nanosheets, leading to low bending rigidity and increased inter-nanosheet interactions, yielding conformal, large-area junctions of >10e4 nm2 to dramatically reduce RJ.

Our radical new technology will use a range of n- or p-type nanosheets to achieve printed networks with mobilities of up to 1000 cm2/Vs.

A comprehensive electrical characterisation of all nanosheet networks will allow us to not only identify those with ultra-high mobility but also to fully control the relation between basic physics/chemistry and network mobility.

We will demonstrate the utility of our technology by using our best-performing networks as complementary field-effect devices in next- generation, integrated, wearable sensor arrays.

Printed digital and analog circuits will read and amplify sensor signals, demonstrating a potential commercialisable application.