Unit II

MOS Field Effect Transistors

There are two major types of three-terminal semiconductor devices: the metal- oxide
semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), and the bipolar junction transistor (BJT).
Although each of the two transistor types offers unique features and areas of application, the
MOSFET has become by far the most widely used electronic device, especially in the design
of integrated circuits (ICs), which are entire circuits fabricated on a single silicon chip.

Compared to BJTs, MOSFETs can be made quite small (i.e., requiring a small area on
the silicon IC chip), and their manufacturing process is relatively simple. Also, their
operation requires comparatively little power. Furthermore, circuit designers have found
ingenious ways to implement digital and analog functions utilizing MOSFETs almost
exclusively (i.e., with very few or no resistors). All of these properties have made it possible
to pack large numbers of MOSFETs (as many as 2 billion!) on a single IC chip to implement
very sophisticated, very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) digital circuits such as those for
memory and microprocessors. Analog circuits such as amplifiers and filters can also be
implemented in MOS technology, albeit in smaller, less-dense chips. Also, both analog and
digital functions are increasingly being implemented on the same IC chip, in what is known
as mixed-signal design.

Different Types of FETS:

Device Structure and Physical Operation:

 The enhancement-type MOSFET is the most widely used field-effect transistor.

 Figure a & b, shows the physical structure of the n-channel enhancement-type

MOSFET.
 The transistor is fabricated on a p-type substrate, which is a single-crystal silicon
wafer that provides physical support for the device.
 Two heavily doped n-type regions, indicated in the figure as the n+ source1 and the
n+ drain regions, are created in the substrate.
 A thin layer of silicon dioxide (SiO2) of thickness tox (typically 1 to 10 nm), which is
an excellent electrical insulator, is grown on the surface of the substrate, covering the
area between the source and drain regions.
  Metal is deposited on top of the oxide layer to form the gate electrode of the device.
Metal contacts are also made to the source region, the drain region, and the substrate,
also known as the body.
 Thus four terminals are brought out: the gate terminal (G), the source terminal (S), the
drain terminal (D), and the substrate or body terminal (B).
 Another name for the MOSFET is the insulated-gate FET or IGFET. This name also
arises from the physical structure of the device, emphasizing the fact that the gate
electrode is electrically insulated from the device body (by the oxide layer).
 It is this insulation that causes the current in the gate terminal to be extremely small
(of the order of 10−15 A).
 The substrate forms pn junctions with the source and drain regions. In normal
operations, these pn junctions are kept reverse-biased at all times.
 Since, as we shall see shortly, the drain will always be at a positive voltage relative to
the source, the two pn junctions can be effectively cut off by simply connecting the
substrate terminal to the source terminal.
 Thus, here, the substrate will be considered as having no effect on device operation,
and the MOSFET will be treated as a three-terminal device, with the terminals being
the gate (G), the source (S), and the drain (D).
 It will be shown that a voltage applied to the gate controls current flow between
source and drain. Hence, a MOSFET is called a “Voltage Control Device”.
 This current will flow in the longitudinal direction from drain to source in the region
labelled “channel region.” Note that this region has a length L and a width W, two
important parameters of the MOSFET.

Physical working Operation of N Channel Enhancement type MOSFET:

Operation with Zero Gate Voltage:

 With zero voltage applied to the gate, two back-to-back diodes exist in series between
drain and source.
 One diode is formed by the pn junction between the n+ drain region and the ptype
substrate, and the other diode is formed by the pn junction between the p-type
substrate and the n+ source region.
 These back-to-back diodes prevent current conduction from drain to source when a
voltage VDS is applied. In fact, the path between drain and source has a very high
resistance (of the order of 1012 Ω).

Creating a Channel for Current Flow:

 Here we have grounded the source and the drain, and the Gate applied to a positive
voltage with reference to source. Since the source is grounded, the gate voltage
appears in effect between gate and source and thus is denoted VGS.
 The positive voltage on the gate causes, in the first instance, the free holes (which are
positively charged) to be repelled from the region of the substrate under the gate (the
channel region).
 These holes are pushed downward into the substrate, leaving behind a carrier-
depletion region.
 The depletion region is populated by the bound negative charge associated with the
acceptor atoms. These charges are “uncovered” because the neutralizing holes have
been pushed downward into the substrate.
 As well, the positive gate voltage attracts electrons from the n+ source and drain
regions into the channel region.
 When a sufficient number of electrons accumulate near the surface of the substrate
under the gate, an n region is in effect created, connecting the source and drain
regions, as indicated in below figure.
 Now if a voltage is applied between drain and source, current flows through this
induced n region, carried by the mobile electrons.
 The induced n region thus forms a channel for current flow from drain to source and
is aptly called so. Correspondingly, the MOSFET is called an n-channel MOSFET or,
alternatively, an NMOS transistor.

 The channel is created by inverting the substrate surface from p type to n type. Hence
the induced channel is also called an inversion layer.
 The value of at which a sufficient number of mobile electrons accumulate in the
channel region to form a conducting channel is called the threshold voltage and is
denoted Vt. Obviously, Vt for an n-channel MOSFET is positive.
 The gate and the channel region of the MOSFET form a parallel-plate capacitor, with
the oxide layer acting as the capacitor dielectric. The positive gate voltage causes
positive charge to accumulate on the top plate of the capacitor (the gate electrode).
The corresponding negative charge on the bottom plate is formed by the electrons in
the induced channel. An electric field thus develops in the vertical direction.
  It is this field that controls the amount of charge in the channel, and thus it determines
the channel conductivity and, in turn, the current that will flow through the channel
when a voltage VDS is applied. This is the origin of the name “field-effect transistor”
(FET).
 When VDS=0, as in above figure, the voltage at every point along the channel is zero,
and the voltage across the oxide (i.e., between the gate and the points along the
channel) is uniform and equal to VGS.
 The excess of VGS over Vt is termed the effective voltage or the overdrive voltage and
is the quantity that determines the charge in the channel. we shall denote overdrive
voltage by (VGS-Vt)=Vov.
(VGS-Vt)=VOV
 We can express the magnitude of the electron charge in the channel by
Q = COX (WL) VOV.
where, COX called the oxide capacitance (F/m2)
also,
COX=εOX/tOX
where, εOX called the permittivity of the silicon dioxide
 Finally, note from the above equation, that as VOV is increased, the magnitude of the
channel charge increases proportionately. Sometimes this is depicted as an increase in
the depth of the channel that is, the larger the overdrive voltage, the deeper the
Channel.

Applying a Small VDS:

 Having induced a channel, we now apply a positive voltage VDS between drain and
source, as shown in Fig.
 The voltage VDS causes a current ID to flow through the induced n - channel. Current
is carried by free electrons traveling from source to drain. By convention, the
direction of current flow is opposite to that of the flow of negative charge. Thus the
current in the channel, ID, will be from drain to source.
  To calculate the value of ID, we first note that because VDS is small, we can continue
to assume that the voltage between the gate and various points along the channel
remains approximately constant and equal to the value at the source end, VGS.
 Thus, the effective voltage between the gate and the various points along the channel
remains equal to VOV, and the channel charge Q is still given by

 The voltage VDS establishes an electric field E across the length of the channel,

 This electric field in turn causes the channel electrons to drift toward the drain with a
velocity given by

Where, µn is the mobility of the electrons at the surface of the channel

 The value of ID can now be found by multiplying the charge per unit channel length
by the electron drift velocity.

 Thus, for small VDS, the channel behaves as a linear resistance whose value is
controlled by the overdrive voltage VOV, which in turn is determined by VGS:

Operation as VDS Is Increased:

 We next consider the situation as VDS is increased.
 For this purpose, let be held constant at a value greater than Vt that is, let the
MOSFET be operated at a constant overdrive voltage.
 Note that VDS appears as a voltage drop across the length of the channel. That is, as
we travel along the channel from source to drain, the voltage (measured relative to the
source) increases from zero to VDS.
 Thus the voltage between the gate and points along the channel decreases from
VGS=Vt+VOV at the source end to VGD=VGS-VDS at the drain end.
 Since the channel depth depends on this voltage, and specifically on the amount by
which this voltage exceeds Vt, we find that the channel is no longer of uniform depth;
rather, the channel will take the tapered shape shown in Fig, being deepest at the
source end (where the depth is proportional to VOV) and shallowest at the drain end
(where the depth is proportional to VOV-VDS).
To Calculate Drain Current (ID):

 As VDS is increased, the channel becomes more tapered and its resistance increases
correspondingly.
 The equation can be easily derived by utilizing the information in above Fig. a.
specifically, note that the charge in the tapered channel is proportional to the channel
cross-sectional area shown in Fig. b. This area in turn can be easily seen as
proportional to or . Thus, the relationship between ID

and VDS can be found by replacing VOV in by ,

Operation for VDS ≥VOV :

 Figure (a) shows VDS reaching VOV and VGD correspondingly reaching Vt.
 The zero depth of the channel at the drain end gives rise to the term channel pinch-off.
  Increasing VDS beyond this value ([Link]>VOV ) has no effect on the channel
shape and charge, and the current through the channel remains constant at the value
reached for VDS=VOV.
 The drain current thus saturates at the value found by substituting VDS=VOV in Eq.

 It should be noted that channel pinch-off does not mean channel blockage: Current
continues to flow through the pinched-off channel, and the electrons that reach the
drain end of the channel are accelerated through the depletion region that exists there
and into the drain terminal.
o Where kn’=µ[Link]
o µn=Mobility of charge carriers (Electrons for n-channel MOSFET) (cm2/V-S)
o Cox=Oxide capacitance (F/µm2)
o W=width of the channel (µm)
o L=Length of the channel (µm)
o VOV=VGS-Vt=Over drive voltage (V)

CIRCUIT SYMBOL OF N-CHANNEL ENHANCEMENT TYPE MOSFET:

 Figure (a) shows the circuit symbol for the n-channel enhancement-type MOSFET.
 Observe that the spacing between the two vertical lines that represent the gate and the
channel indicates the fact that the gate electrode is insulated from the body of the
device.
 The polarity of the p-type substrate (body) and the n channel is indicated by the
arrowhead on the line representing the body (B).
 This arrowhead also indicates the polarity of the transistor, namely, that it is an n-
channel device.
 Although the MOSFET is a symmetrical device, it is often useful in circuit design to
designate one terminal as the source and the other as the drain. Shown in Fig. (b).
 In applications where the source is connected to the body of the device, a further
simplification of the circuit symbol is possible, as indicated in Fig. (c).

CIRCUIT SYMBOL OF P-CHANNEL ENHANCEMENT TYPE MOSFET:

CURRENT–VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS:

MOSFET as Amplifier and Switch:

 A voltage-controlled current source can serve as a transconductance amplifier; that is,

an amplifier whose input signal is a voltage and whose output signal is a current.
 More commonly, however, one is interested in voltage amplifiers. A simple way to
convert a transconductance amplifier to a voltage amplifier is to pass the output
current through a resistor and take the voltage across the resistor as the output.
 Doing this for a MOSFET results in the simple amplifier circuit shown in below
circuit.
The Voltage Transfer Characteristic (VTC)
Operation as a Switch:

 When the MOSFET is used as a switch, it is operated at the extreme points of the
transfer curve. Specifically, the device is turned off by keeping𝑣𝐼 < 𝑉 , resulting𝑣0 =
𝑉𝐷𝐷. The switch is turned on by applying a voltage closer to𝑉𝐷𝐷. Indeed, the
common-source MOS circuit can be used as a logic inverter with the "low" voltage
level close to 0 V and the "high" level close to𝑉𝐷𝐷.