Mixed-Dimensional 1D/2D Ternary CMOS for High-Performance Integrated Circuits.

Abstract

Ternary logic offers a path to higher information density and lower power consumption beyond the limits of binary CMOS, yet its progress has been limited by the absence of high-performance ternary transistors and scalable circuit technologies. Here we report a mixed-dimensional ternary CMOS (T-CMOS) platform that monolithically integrates aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and monolayer MoS₂ within silicon backend-of-line processes. The resulting CNT-MoS₂ heterojunction transistors exhibit more than an order-of-magnitude performance improvement in output current and negative differential transconductance over previous ternary devices, enabling robust three-level switching with large noise margins. By co-fabricating CNT p-FETs and MoS₂ n-FETs into heterojunction devices, we realize CMOS-compatible standard, positive and negative ternary inverters, as well as NMIN and NMAX logic gates. A fully functional ternary 2-to-9 decoder, the most complex low-dimensional ternary circuit to date, is also demonstrated. Dynamic measurements and calibrated simulations confirm the scalability, cascade capability, and robustness of the T-CMOS architecture, providing a viable pathway toward large-scale ternary integrated circuits beyond binary limits.