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Updated: May 22, 2026

A Standard and Reliable Method to Fabricate Two-Dimensional Nanoelectronics
Published on: August 28, 2018
Starvation effect enables computing and memory functions in semiconductor-free fibres
Xuhui Zhou1, Lei Huang1, Zhixun Wang2
1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
Abstract:
Fibre-based switchable devices hold great promise for textile-integrated low-power computing and high-density data storage. However, their development has been hindered by the reliance on semiconductor materials, which demand specialised patterning techniques to achieve nanoscale precision on highly curved fibre surfaces, substantially increasing structural complexity and fabrication cost. Here, two semiconductor-free four-terminal switchable ionic fibres (FSIFs) enabled by a nanoscale-level ion starvation mechanism are presented. This design eliminates the scaling constraints associated with semiconductors, maintaining high device functionality even when feature sizes are relaxed to the sub-millimetre scale. Therefore, the FSIFs are compatible with cost-effective, high-throughput commercial textile manufacturing processes and offer two switching capabilities: binary volatile with a 15:1 ON/OFF ratio at 1 mV and continuous non-volatile with a 2.6:1 ratio between 0.6-1.6 V. These characteristics enable low-power computing, multi-level memory, and extended functions including device control, signal modulation, and neural image recognition, broadening the toolbox for next-generation wearable intelligence.
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