image: Logic circuit design diagram of the 2D FPGA
Credit: ©Science China Press
The global integrated circuit (IC) industry is confronting the physical limitations of Moore's Law. Atomic-layer-thick two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, such as Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2), are widely recognized internationally as a crucial path toward overcoming this fundamental impasse.
For many years, the integration scale of 2D semiconductor ICs was severely restricted, typically confined to only a few hundred transistors. This limitation prevented 2D materials from crossing the necessary technical threshold required for developing complex reconfigurable systems.
The joint team led by Professor Peng Zhou and Professor Wenzhong Bao at Fudan University has successfully developed and demonstrated the first field-programmable gate array (FPGA) utilizing wafer-scale 2D semiconductor materials.
This breakthrough chip integrates approximately 4,000 transistors, marking a historical transition for 2D electronics from basic logic gates to large-scale, complex, and fully reconfigurable functional systems.
The Fudan team utilized an independently innovated, wafer-scale 2D semiconductor integration process platform to successfully overcome critical challenges associated with large-scale integration and yield control. The integration flow ensures reliable operation of the core logic units using only N-type transistors.
Furthermore, the chip’s configuration memory array, which dictates the logic functions, adopted a compact and efficient 2T0C DRAM structure. This design choice consumes significantly less chip area than traditional 6T-SRAM configuration cells commonly used in FPGAs, contributing to higher overall integration density.1Compared to conventional silicon-based chips, 2D materials inherently possess atomic-level thickness and a high specific surface area, which provides a physical mechanism to effectively resist ionizing radiation damage.
Total ionizing dose (TID) tests were conducted to rigorously verify the device reliability in extreme environments. The 2D FPGA successfully withstood exposure to an impressive 10 Mrad of gamma radiation while maintaining full functionality of the core logic modules.
This achievement provides a new materials-based technical route for developing high-reliability electronic components. Crucially, the intrinsic radiation resistance can significantly reduce the dependence on heavy external shielding layers currently required in critical systems for applications such as aerospace and high-reliability computing.
Utilizing industry-standard design flows, the team successfully verified multiple complex digital logic functions on the same 2D FPGA circuit, including adders, multipliers, and counters.
The successful execution of these complex functions conclusively demonstrates the device’s critical reconfigurability and practical utility. This research success proves that 2D semiconductor devices possess the strong potential to construct large-scale, high-reliability, and reconfigurable systems.
The team plans to leverage its established core technology system and silicon-compatible integration processes to deepen collaboration with industrial partners, thereby accelerating the translation of these 2D chips from the laboratory environment into high-value markets.