A buffer thinner than a single strand of DNA could carry chipmaking past the silicon era: researchers at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and TSMC Corporate Research have engineered an interlayer of aluminum oxide just 0.42 nanometers thick that, for the first time, makes transistors built from the 2D material molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) both efficiently controllable and high-performing at once. The study was published on 9 August 2026 in the journal Nature Electronics.
Why silicon is running out of room
Classic silicon transistors can barely be shrunk further without leakage currents and control problems taking over. Two-dimensional semiconductors such as MoS₂, whose channel is just a single atomic layer thick, are seen as a way out. The sticking point has been the interface between that ultrathin channel and the gate insulator above it: common high-κ materials like hafnium oxide disrupt charge transport when deposited directly onto the channel.
What the aluminum-oxide buffer does
The team evaporated a thin aluminum film and let it oxidize into 0.42-nanometer aluminum oxide before adding the hafnium oxide on top. This atomic buffer shields the channel without sacrificing electrostatic coupling. At a channel length of roughly 100 nanometers, the researchers reached an equivalent oxide thickness of about one nanometer and a transconductance of 0.45 mS/µm — figures that combine tight control with high carrier mobility.
Still lab-stage, but a concrete step
An important caveat: this is a laboratory result, not a finished manufacturing process. The authors stress that the process must still be optimized for wafer-scale mass production. But the direct involvement of contract manufacturer TSMC lends the approach real industrial weight on the road to chip nodes beyond the one-nanometer mark.
Sources: ScienceDaily: A 0.42-nanometer breakthrough could push transistors beyond silicon · Nature Electronics (9 August 2026) · SemiWiki: analysis of the TSMC breakthrough
