In a groundbreaking achievement, scientists at Fudan University, Shanghai, have published a study on their development of a functioning memory chip integrated with 2D materials merely a few atoms thick, a feat that may seem like something out of a science fiction narrative.

This milestone has been accomplished through a process dubbed Atom2chip, which involves layering molybdenum disulfide onto a traditional 0.13-micron CMOS silicon chip. This integration melds a new atomic-scale technology with established techniques to yield a functional hybrid memory chip.

This chip’s 2D flash memory array can communicate with the CMOS chip’s control logic using a custom interface, enabling efficient instruction-driven operations, 32-bit parallelism, and random access capabilities between both components. This innovative approach not only highlights the efficacy of coupling 2D technologies with conventional chips but also presents a significant increase in operational speeds with remarkably low power consumption at approximately 0.644 picojoules per bit. The process was confirmed to be stable, boasting a 94.34% success rate, indicating its potential for mass manufacturing in the near future.

The researchers noted that previous demonstrations of 2D materials were limited to isolated lab tests, but this development promises a new avenue in scaling semiconductor technologies. As manufacturing processes continue to shrink in complexity, integrating 2D materials may extend Moore’s Law down to atomic dimensions in the coming decades.