Back-End-of-Line Compatible Large-Area Molybdenum Disulfide Grown on Flexible Substrate: Enabling High-Performance Low-Power Memristor Applications

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in flexible technology can offer large-area scalability and high-density integration with a low power consumption. However, incorporating large-area TMDs in a flexible platform is lacking in state-of-the-art data storage technology owing to the high process temperature of TMDs. Low-temperature growth of TMDs can bridge mass production in flexible technology and reduce the complexity of the transferring process. Here, we introduce a crossbar memory array enabled by low-temperature (250 °C) plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposited MoS₂ directly grown on a flexible substrate. The low-temperature sulfurization induces nanograins of MoS₂ with multiple grain boundaries, allowing the path for charge particles, which leads to the formation of conducting filaments. The back-end-of-line compatible MoS₂-based crossbar memristors exhibit robust resistance switching (RS) behavior with a high on/off current ratio of approximately ～10⁵, excellent endurance (>350 cycles), retention (>200000 s), and low operating voltage (～±0.5 V). Furthermore, the MoS₂ synthesized at low temperature on a flexible substrate facilitates RS characteristics demonstrated under strain states and exhibits excellent RS performance. Thus, the use of direct-grown MoS₂ on a polyimide (PI) substrate for high-performance cross-bar memristors can transform emerging flexible electronics.