Transfer of transition-metal dichalcogenide circuits onto arbitrary substrates for flexible device applications

Transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials with two-dimensional layered structures and stable surfaces are well suited for transparent and flexible device applications. In order to completely utilize the advantages of thickness control and fabrication of various heterostructure stacks, we proposed a transfer method of TMD field-effect transistors (FETs) and TMD complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits from a Si/SiO₂ substrate to a flexible substrate. We compared the characteristics of transferred MoS₂ and WSe₂ FETs with those of the corresponding devices transferred after channel passivation with an Al₂O₃ layer on a flexible substrate. Al₂O₃ passivation further stabilized the transfer of the entire device with electrodes. A CMOS circuit with MoS₂ and WSe₂ materials could be successfully transferred to a polyethylene terephthalate substrate after the channel passivation. This implies that TMD circuits can be easily fabricated on polymer substrates, which makes them suitable for use in semiconductor processes, for various applications.