Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

The performance limits of hexagonal boron nitride as an insulator for scaled CMOS devices based on two-dimensional materials

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 98–108 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits at their ultimate scaling limits place extreme demands on the properties of all materials involved. The requirements for semiconductors are well explored and could possibly be satisfied by a number of layered two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides or black phosphorus. The requirements for gate insulators are arguably even more challenging. At present, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is the most common 2D insulator and is widely considered to be the most promising gate insulator in 2D material-based transistors. Here we assess the material parameters and performance limits of hBN. We compare experimental and theoretical tunnel currents through ultrathin layers (equivalent oxide thickness of less than 1 nm) of hBN and other 2D gate insulators, including the ideal case of defect-free hBN. Though its properties make hBN a candidate for many applications in 2D nanoelectronics, excessive leakage currents lead us to conclude that hBN is unlikely to be suitable for use as a gate insulator in ultrascaled CMOS devices.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: hBN heterostructures.
Fig. 2: Measured leakage currents through hBN.
Fig. 3: hBN band structure.
Fig. 4: Performance projection of the tunnel current through hBN in the defect-free case.
Fig. 5: Comparison of gate insulators for ultrascaled CMOS devices based on 2D materials.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

For the Tsu–Esaki/WKB calculations, we used the Comphy code, which is publicly available from https://comphy.eu/ (ref. 39). For the full-band transport simulations, the matrices were calculated with the CP2K package, which is publicly available from https://www.cp2k.org/ (ref. 44). These matrices were loaded into the quantum transport solver OMEN, as described at https://www.cp2k.org/howto:cp2k_omen (ref. 45). Both code packages can be downloaded from https://github.com/cp2k/cp2k.

References

  1. Chhowalla, M., Jena, D. & Zhang, H. Two-dimensional semiconductors for transistors. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16052 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Akinwande, D. et al. Graphene and two-dimensional materials for silicon technology. Nature 573, 507–518 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Geim, A. K. & Grigorieva, I. V. Van der Waals heterostructures. Nature 499, 419–425 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Liu, Y. et al. Van der Waals heterostructures and devices. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16042 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dean, C. R. et al. Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 722–726 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang, K., Feng, Y., Wang, F., Yang, Z. & Wang, J. Two dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (2D-hBN): synthesis, properties and applications. J. Mater. Chem. C 5, 11992–12022 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Rhodes, D., Chae, S. H., Ribeiro-Palau, R. & Hone, J. Disorder in van der Waals heterostructures of 2D materials. Nat. Mater. 18, 541–549 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Britnell, L. et al. Electron tunneling through ultrathin boron nitride crystalline barriers. Nano Lett. 12, 1707–1710 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ji, Y. et al. Boron nitride as two dimensional dielectric: reliability and dielectric breakdown. Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012905 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Chen, T. A. et al. Wafer-scale single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayers on Cu (111). Nature 579, 219–223 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Taniguchi, T. & Watanabe, K. Synthesis of high-purity boron nitride single crystals under high pressure by using Ba–BN solvent. J. Cryst. Growth 303, 525–529 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Paciĺ, D., Meyer, J. C., Girit, Ç. & Zettl, A. The two-dimensional phase of boron nitride: few-atomic-layer sheets and suspended membranes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 133107 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Shi, Z. et al. Vapor–liquid–solid growth of large-area multilayer hexagonal boron nitride on dielectric substrates. Nat. Commun. 11, 849 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Lee, J. et al. Atomic layer deposition of layered boron nitride for large-area 2D electronics. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 36688–36694 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kim, K. K. et al. Synthesis of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on Cu foil using chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 12, 161–166 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jang, S. K., Youn, J., Song, Y. J. & Lee, S. Synthesis and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride as a gate dielectric. Sci. Rep. 6, 30449 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Kim, S. M. et al. Synthesis of large-area multilayer hexagonal boron nitride for high material performance. Nat. Commun. 6, 8662 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Li, X. et al. Large-area two-dimensional layered hexagonal boron nitride grown on sapphire by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Cryst. Growth Des. 16, 3409–3415 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Elias, C. et al. Direct band-gap crossover in epitaxial monolayer boron nitride. Nat. Commun. 10, 2639 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wang, L. et al. One-dimensional electrical contact to a two-dimensional material. Science 342, 614–617 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Cui, X. et al. Multi-terminal transport measurements of MoS2 using a van der Waals heterostructure device platform. Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 534–540 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Baugher, B. W. H., Churchill, H. O. H., Yang, Y. & Jarillo-Herrero, P. Intrinsic electronic transport properties of high quality monolayer and bilayer MoS2. Nano Lett. 13, 4212–4216 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ma, N. & Jena, D. Charge scattering and mobility in atomically thin semiconductors. Phys. Rev. X 4, 011043 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Konar, A., Fang, T. & Jena, D. Effect of high-κ gate dielectrics on charge transport in graphene-based field effect transistors. Phys. Rev. B 82, 115452 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Cadiz, F. et al. Excitonic linewidth approaching the homogeneous limit in MoS2-based van der Waals heterostructures. Phys. Rev. X 7, 021026 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Cao, Y. et al. Unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle graphene superlattices. Nature 556, 43–50 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Shi, Y. et al. Electronic synapses made of layered two-dimensional materials. Nat. Electron. 1, 458–465 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Akinwande, D., Petrone, N. & Hone, J. Two-dimensional flexible nanoelectronics. Nat. Commun. 5, 5678 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hong, S. et al. Ultralow-dielectric-constant amorphous boron nitride. Nature 582, 511–514 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Palumbo, F. et al. A review on dielectric breakdown in thin dielectrics: silicon dioxide, high-k, and layered dielectrics. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 1900657 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Chandni, U., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T. & Eisenstein, J. P. Evidence for defect-mediated tunneling in hexagonal boron nitride-based junctions. Nano Lett. 15, 7329–7333 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Weston, L., Wickramaratne, D., Mackoit, M., Alkauskas, A. & Van De Walle, C. G. Native point defects and impurities in hexagonal boron nitride. Phys. Rev. B 97, 214104 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Greenaway, M. T. et al. Tunnel spectroscopy of localised electronic states in hexagonal boron nitride. Commun. Phys. 1, 94 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Strand, J., Larcher, L. & Shluger, A. L. Properties of intrinsic point defects and dimers in hexagonal boron nitride. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 32, 055706 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Jin, C., Lin, F., Suenaga, K. & Iijima, S. Fabrication of a freestanding boron nitride single layer and its defect assignments. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 195505 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Wong, D. et al. Characterization and manipulation of individual defects in insulating hexagonal boron nitride using scanning tunnelling microscopy. Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 949–953 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  37. IEEE International Roadmap for Devices and Systems—More Moore Technical Report (IEEE, 2020).

  38. Tsu, R. & Esaki, L. Tunneling in a finite superlattice. Appl. Phys. Lett. 22, 562–564 (1973).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Rzepa, G. et al. Comphy—a compact-physics framework for unified modeling of BTI. Microelectron. Reliab. 85, 49–65 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Geick, R., Perry, C. & Rupprecht, G. Normal modes in hexagonal boron nitride. Phys. Rev. 146, 543–547 (1966).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Laturia, A., Van de Put, M. L. & Vandenberghe, W. G. Dielectric properties of hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides: from monolayer to bulk. npj 2D Mater. Appl. 2, 6 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Xu, Y. N. & Ching, W. Y. Calculation of ground-state and optical properties of boron nitrides in the hexagonal, cubic, and wurtzite structures. Phys. Rev. B 44, 7787–7798 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Heyd, J., Scuseria, G. E. & Ernzerhof, M. Hybrid functionals based on a screened Coulomb potential. J. Chem. Phys. 118, 8207–8215 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Kühne, T. D. et al. CP2K: an electronic structure and molecular dynamics software package—Quickstep: efficient and accurate electronic structure calculations. J. Chem. Phys. 152, 194103 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  45. Brück, S., Calderara, M., Bani-Hashemian, M. H., VandeVondele, J. & Luisier, M. Efficient algorithms for large-scale quantum transport calculations. J. Chem. Phys. 147, 074116 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Wen, C. et al. Dielectric properties of ultrathin CaF2 ionic crystals. Adv. Mater. 32, 2002525 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Appenzeller, J., Radosavljević, M., Knoch, J. & Avouris, P. Tunneling versus thermionic emission in one-dimensional semiconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 048301 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  48. Qiu, C. et al. Dirac-source field-effect transistors as energy-efficient, high-performance electronic switches. Science 361, 387–392 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  49. Salahuddin, S. & Datta, S. Use of negative capacitance to provide voltage amplification for low power nanoscale devices. Nano Lett. 8, 405–410 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Britnell, L. et al. Field-effect tunneling transistor based on vertical graphene heterostructures. Science 335, 947–950 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  51. Illarionov, Y. Y. et al. Insulators for 2D nanoelectronics: the gap to bridge. Nat. Commun. 11, 3385 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Low, C. G. & Zhang, Q. Ultra-thin and flat mica as gate dielectric layers. Small 8, 2178–2183 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Kim, H. J. et al. Hunting for monolayer oxide nanosheets and their architectures. Sci. Rep. 6, 19402 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Shin, G. H. et al. High-performance field-effect transistor and logic gates based on GaS-MoS2 van der Waals heterostructure. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 5106–5112 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  55. Holler, B. A., Crowley, K., Berger, M. H. & Gao, X. P. 2D semiconductor transistors with van der Waals oxide MoO3 as integrated high-κ gate dielectric. Adv. Electron. Mater. 6, 2000635 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Chamlagain, B. et al. Thermally oxidized 2D TaS2 as a high-κ gate dielectric for MoS2 field-effect transistors. 2D Mater. 4, 031002 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Li, T. et al. A native oxide high-κ gate dielectric for two-dimensional electronics. Nat. Electron. 3, 473–478 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Peimyoo, N. et al. Laser-writable high-k dielectric for van der Waals nanoelectronics. Sci. Adv. 5, eaau0906 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  59. Mleczko, M. J. et al. HfSe2 and ZrSe2: two-dimensional semiconductors with native high-κ oxides. Sci. Adv. 3, e1700481 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Dean, C. R. et al. Hofstadter’s butterfly and the fractal quantum Hall effect in moiré superlattices. Nature 497, 598–602 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  61. Gaskell, J. et al. Graphene-hexagonal boron nitride resonant tunneling diodes as high-frequency oscillators. Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 103105 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  62. Caldwell, J. D. et al. Photonics with hexagonal boron nitride. Nat. Rev. Mater. 4, 552–567 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Arnaud, B., Lebègue, S., Rabiller, P. & Alouani, M. Huge excitonic effects in layered hexagonal boron nitride. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 026402 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Cassabois, G., Valvin, P. & Gil, B. Hexagonal boron nitride is an indirect bandgap semiconductor. Nat. Photon. 10, 262–266 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  65. Haastrup, S. et al. The Computational 2D Materials Database: high-throughput modeling and discovery of atomically thin crystals. 2D Mater. 5, 042002 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Bersch, E., Rangan, S., Bartynski, R. A., Garfunkel, E. & Vescovo, E. Band offsets of ultrathin high-κ oxide films with Si. Phys. Rev. B 78, 085114 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  67. Robertson, J. Band offsets of wide-band-gap oxides and implications for future electronic devices. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 18, 1785–1791 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  68. Robertson, J. High dielectric constant oxides. Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 28, 265–291 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Vexler, M. I., Tyaginov, S. E. & Shulekin, A. F. Determination of the hole effective mass in thin silicon dioxide film. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 17, 8057–8068 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  70. Städele, M., Sacconi, F., Di Carlo, A. & Lugli, P. Enhancement of the effective tunnel mass in ultrathin silicon dioxide layers. J. Appl. Phys. 93, 2681–2690 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Specht, M., Städele, M., Jakschik, S. & Schröder, U. Transport mechanisms in atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 dielectrics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 3076–3078 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  72. Aarik, J., Mändar, H., Kirm, M. & Pung, L. Optical characterization of HfO2 thin films grown by atomic layer deposition. Thin Solid Films 466, 41–47 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Campera, A., Iannaccone, G. & Crupi, F. Modeling of tunnelling currents in Hf-based gate stacks. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 54, 83–89 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  74. Lin, Y. S., Puthenkovilakam, R. & Chang, J. P. Dielectric property and thermal stability of HfO2 on silicon. Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 2041–2043 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  75. Hou, Y. T., Li, M. F., Yu, H. Y. & Kwong, D. L. Modeling of tunneling currents through HfO2 and (HfO2)x(Al2O3)1−x gate stacks. IEEE Electron Device Lett. 24, 96–98 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Kim, S. S. et al. Tunable bandgap narrowing induced by controlled molecular thickness in 2D mica nanosheets. Chem. Mater. 27, 4222–4228 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  77. Park, S. et al. Characterization of luminescence properties of exfoliated mica via sonication technique. Chem. Phys. 522, 238–241 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Wang, L. & Sasaki, T. Titanium oxide nanosheets: graphene analogues with versatile functionalities. Chem. Rev. 114, 9455–9486 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  79. Osada, M. & Sasaki, T. Two-dimensional dielectric nanosheets: novel nanoelectronics from nanocrystal building blocks. Adv. Mater. 24, 210–228 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Rizzo, A., De Blasi, C., Galassini, S., Micocci, G. & Ruggiero, L. Electrical properties of n-type GaS single crystals. Solid State Commun. 40, 641–644 (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  81. Guo, Y. & Robertson, J. Origin of the high work function and high conductivity of MoO3. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 222110 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  82. Cho, B. O., Wang, J., Sha, L. & Chang, J. P. Tuning the electrical properties of zirconium oxide thin films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 1052–1054 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  83. Rubloff, G. W. Far-ultraviolet reflectance spectra and the electronics structure of ionic crystals. Phys. Rev. B 5, 178–188 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  84. Vexler, M. I. et al. Electrical characterization and modeling of the Au/CaF2/nSi (111) structures with high-quality tunnel-thin fluoride layer. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083716 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  85. Wang, J. et al. High-temperature relaxations in CaF2 single crystals. Mater. Sci. Eng. B 188, 31–34 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  86. Gurram, M. et al. Spin transport in fully hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated graphene. Phys. Rev. B 93, 115441 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  87. Mayorov, A. S. et al. Micrometer-scale ballistic transport in encapsulated graphene at room temperature. Nano Lett. 11, 2396–2399 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  88. Dean, C. R. et al. Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 722–726 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  89. Kretinin, A. V. et al. Electronic properties of graphene encapsulated with different two-dimensional atomic crystals. Nano Lett. 14, 3270–3276 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  90. Wang, J. I. et al. Electronic transport of encapsulated graphene and WSe2 devices fabricated by pick-up of prepatterned hBN. Nano Lett. 15, 1898–1903 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  91. Doganov, R. A. et al. Transport properties of ultrathin black phosphorus on hexagonal boron nitride. Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 083505 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  92. Gillgren, N. et al. Gate tunable quantum oscillations in air-stable and high mobility few-layer phosphorene heterostructures. 2D Mater. 2, 011001 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  93. Long, G. et al. Achieving ultrahigh carrier mobility in two-dimensional hole gas of black phosphorus. Nano Lett. 16, 7768–7773 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  94. Movva, H. C. et al. High-mobility holes in dual-gated WSe2 field-effect transistors. ACS Nano 9, 10402–10410 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  95. Chen, X. et al. High-quality sandwiched black phosphorus heterostructure and its quantum oscillations. Nat. Commun. 6, 7315 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  96. Cao, Y. et al. Quality heterostructures from two-dimensional crystals unstable in air by their assembly in inert atmosphere. Nano Lett. 15, 4914–4921 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  97. Liu, W., Sarkar, D., Kang, J., Cao, W. & Banerjee, K. Impact of contact on the operation and performance of back-gated monolayer MoS2 field-effect-transistors. ACS Nano 9, 7904–7912 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  98. Zhang, Y., Ye, J., Matsuhashi, Y. & Iwasa, Y. Ambipolar MoS2 thin flake transistors. Nano Lett. 12, 1136–1140 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  99. Kaushik, N. et al. Reversible hysteresis inversion in MoS2 field effect transistors. npj 2D Mater. Appl. 1, 34 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  100. Chen, J. H., Jang, C., Xiao, S., Ishigami, M. & Fuhrer, M. S. Intrinsic and extrinsic performance limits of graphene devices on SiO2. Nat. Nanotechnol. 3, 206–209 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  101. Karnatak, P. et al. Current crowding mediated large contact noise in graphene field-effect transistors. Nat. Commun. 7, 13703 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  102. Farmer, D. B. et al. Utilization of a buffered dielectric to achieve high field-effect carrier mobility in graphene transistors. Nano Lett. 9, 4474–4478 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  103. Radisavljevic, B. & Kis, A. Mobility engineering and a metal–insulator transition in monolayer MoS2. Nat. Mater. 12, 815–820 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  104. Neal, A. T., Liu, H., Gu, J. & Ye, P. D. Magneto-transport in MoS2: phase coherence, spin–orbit scattering, and the Hall factor. ACS Nano 7, 7077–7082 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  105. Ponomarenko, L. A. et al. Effect of a high-κ environment on charge carrier mobility in graphene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 100–103 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  106. Koenig, S. P., Doganov, R. A., Schmidt, H., Castro Neto, A. H. & Özyilmaz, B. Electric field effect in ultrathin black phosphorus. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 103106 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  107. Perello, D. J., Chae, S. H., Song, S. & Lee, Y. H. High-performance n-type black phosphorus transistors with type control via thickness and contact-metal engineering. Nat. Commun. 6, 7809 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  108. Allain, A. & Kis, A. Electron and hole mobilities in single-layer WSe2. ACS Nano 8, 7180–7185 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  109. Pradhan, N. R. et al. Hall and field-effect mobilities in few layered p-WSe2 field-effect transistors. Sci. Rep. 5, 8979 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

T.K., Y.Y.I. and T.G. acknowledge the financial support through FWF grant numbers I2606-N30, I4123-N30 and P29119-N35. Y.Y.I. and M.I.V. acknowledge financial support by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under project number 075-15-2020-790. F.D. and M. Luisier thank CSCS for giving them access to the Piz Daint supercomputer under project number s876. C.S. and M.W. gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development and the Christian Doppler Research Association. The computational results presented have been achieved in part using the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC). S.W. and T.M. acknowledge financial support through the Graphene Flagship number 785219 and number 881603. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the MEXT, Japan, number JPMXP0112101001, JSPS KAKENHI grant number JP20H00354 and the CREST(JPMJCR15F3), JST. M. Lanza acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grant numbers 2018YFE0100800, 2019YFE0124200) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 61874075).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Theresia Knobloch, Yury Yu. Illarionov & Tibor Grasser

  2. Ioffe Institute, St Petersburg, Russia

    Yury Yu. Illarionov & Mikhail I. Vexler

  3. Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Fabian Ducry & Mathieu Luisier

  4. Christian Doppler Laboratory for Single-Defect Spectroscopy in Semiconductor Devices at the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Christian Schleich & Michael Waltl

  5. Institute for Photonics, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Stefan Wachter & Thomas Mueller

  6. Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Matierals Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe

  7. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takashi Taniguchi

  8. Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Mario Lanza

Authors
  1. Theresia Knobloch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yury Yu. Illarionov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fabian Ducry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Christian Schleich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Stefan Wachter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Kenji Watanabe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Takashi Taniguchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Thomas Mueller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Michael Waltl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Mario Lanza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Mikhail I. Vexler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Mathieu Luisier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Tibor Grasser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

T.K. and T.G. conceived the ideas and led the study; T.K., Y.Y.I. and T.G. prepared the manuscript draft; F.D. and M. Luisier prepared and performed the DFT+NEGF calculations in frequent discussions with T.K. and T.G.; C.S. implemented the Tsu–Esaki model within the Comphy framework under the guidance of M.W.; T.K. and M.I.V. performed the Tsu–Esaki calculations in frequent discussions with Y.Y.I. and T.G.; S.W. fabricated devices under the supervision of T.M. using crystals provided by K.W. and T.T.; M. Lanza fabricated devices and provided advice for data analysis; T.K. performed the electrical characterization of the devices; and all authors reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Theresia Knobloch or Tibor Grasser.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Electronics thanks Tania Roy, Hailin Peng and Ruge Quhe for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Details about device fabrication, electrical characterization, and the simulation methodology for using the Tsu–Esaki model and the DFT+NEGF model, and discussion of the impact of the metal work function on the simulation results. Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Knobloch, T., Illarionov, Y.Y., Ducry, F. et al. The performance limits of hexagonal boron nitride as an insulator for scaled CMOS devices based on two-dimensional materials. Nat Electron 4, 98–108 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00529-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00529-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing