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Integrated two-dimensional microwave transmitters fabricated on the wafer scale

Nature Electronics (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Low-power microwave systems with minimal losses are required due to the growing demand for more efficient communication systems. Two-dimensional semiconductors can potentially be used to create low-power microwave circuits, but the development of integrated two-dimensional microwave systems remains limited. Here we report integrated two-dimensional transmitters fabricated on four-inch monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) wafers. The transmission loss of monolayer MoS2 channel in switch is 0.51 dB, and the power consumption of the complete 16-element transmitter is 3.2 μW. The 4 × 4 phased array transmitter, which offers both communication and radar functions, exhibits a bandwidth of 6 GHz, a beam scanning angle from −35° to 35°, a transmission distance of 136 m and a standby time of 26 days when powered by a 1,000 mAh-capacity battery. Our complete board-level system has a size of around 3 × 2 cm2, and we show that it can be integrated into a small insect model.

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Fig. 1: Analysis and presentation of a monolayer 2D transistor with ultralow loss for electromagnetic waves transmission.
Fig. 2: Fully integrated 2D MoS2 microwave transmitter with complete passive and active components.
Fig. 3: Communication performance of the 2D phased array transmitter.
Fig. 4: Implementation of the monolayer 2D phased array transmitter system and its bifunctional application.

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Source data are provided with this paper. Additional data related to this work are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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The codes that support the theoretical modelling and calculations are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was equally supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under grant number 2021YFA1200500, National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers 62304042, 62525401, 62334011 and 62104039, and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Tianxiang Wu, Liyuan Zhu, Xiangqi Dong, Shunli Ma.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, College of Integrated Circuits and Micro-Nano Electronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Tianxiang Wu, Liyuan Zhu, Xiangqi Dong, Hangyu Qiu, Zhuofan Xu, Tianyang Yan, Xiang Liu, Ji Zhou, Hao Ying, Ziyuan Wu, Wenzhong Bao, Shunli Ma & Peng Zhou

  2. Shaoxin Laboratory, Shaoxing, China

    Wenzhong Bao, Shunli Ma & Peng Zhou

  3. Frontier Institute of Chip and System, Shanghai Key Lab for Future Computing Hardware and System, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Peng Zhou

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Contributions

Conceptualization: P.Z., S.M. and W.B. Methodology: P.Z., S.M. and L.Z. Investigation: S.M., T.W., X.D., H.Q., Z.X., T.Y., X.L., J.Z., H.Y., Z.W. and L.Z. Visualization: L.Z., T.W. and X.D. Funding acquisition: P.Z., S.M. and W.B. Supervision: P.Z., S.M. and W.B. Writing—original draft: L.Z., T.W. and X.D. Writing—review and editing: T.W., L.Z., X.D., H.Q., Z.X., T.Y., X.L., J.Z., H.Y., Z.W., W.B., S.M. and P.Z.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wenzhong Bao, Shunli Ma or Peng Zhou.

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Nature Electronics thanks Martino Aldrigo, Junho Park and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wu, T., Zhu, L., Dong, X. et al. Integrated two-dimensional microwave transmitters fabricated on the wafer scale. Nat Electron (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01452-9

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