2D InSe wafer outperforms silicon in mobility, switching, leakage

Chinese scientists have achieved a major breakthrough by fabricating the world’s first wafer-scale, two-dimensional indium selenide (InSe) semiconductor chip, which outperforms silicon in key performance metrics. Using a novel “solid–liquid–solid” growth method, the team led by Professor Liu Kaihui at Peking University produced a 2-inch InSe wafer with exceptional crystal quality, phase purity, and thickness uniformity. The resulting InSe-based transistors demonstrated electron mobility up to 287 cm²/V·s, ultra-low subthreshold swings, minimal leakage at sub-10nm gate lengths, high on/off ratios, and energy-delay products surpassing the 2037 International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) benchmarks. This advancement overcomes longstanding challenges in synthesizing large-area InSe due to vapor pressure differences and phase instability, by maintaining a perfect atomic ratio of indium and selenium during growth. The process is compatible with existing CMOS technology, facilitating potential real