MOSFET: the invisible technology 2012 people use everyday

Hongling Ye

The Pennsylvania State University

3/14/2012

Audience and Scope

The purpose of this technical document is to introduce MOSFET to people who are not familiar with this electronic component. This document contains Introduction, Physical layout, Operation Theorem, and Conclusion. After reading this documents people who has none Electrical Engineering background should be able to understand the basic functions and working theorem of MOSFET.

Introduction
As the growth of Electronic industry, people are using electronic products much more often than before, and that should thanks to the invention of MOSFET. However, most people do not really know how the MOSFET works in the Electronic products. MOSFET stands for the metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistor. It was first patented by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. MOSFET works as a switch: people could apply voltage to control the conductivity of MOSFET and also the amount of current flows. Since the development of Electronic industry, MOSFET has been commonly use in all digital products as very basic component. By 2011, a commonly used product, Intel Core i7 CPU has over 2,000,000,000 transistors, and most of them are MOSFET.

Figure 1 Moores Law and developing trend of number of transistors in a single chip

Symbols and Physical layout

Generally, there are two types of MOSFET: NMOS and PMOS. They are different in structures and characteristics.

NMOS

PMOS

Symbols

iD Layout

iD

Figure 2 Comparisons of PMOS and NMOS in Symbol and Layout

Both NMOS and PMOS are surrounded by a thin layer of Field Oxide. Inside the Field Oxide square there are 3 terminals in each type of MOSFET: Gate, Drain and Source. Gate is the terminal for applying control voltage. It is made by poly-silicon materials and covered by Gate oxide. Drain and Source are the terminals that current goes through. Below the conducting metal layer is the depletion region. In NMOS, the Depletion region is filled by N-active (N+) semiconductor materials namely active Phosphorus, arsenic and antimony. While for PMOS, P-active (P+) materials like active Boron and aluminum are used. Also for NMOS, the bottom substrate is made from P type semiconductor; PMOS has substrate made from N-type materials. When the MOSFET is activated, there is a conducting current flowing through Drain and Source terminals. In Table 2, the notation iD represents the flowing current. It is also worth to mention that for NMOS iD flows from the Drain to the Source; for PMOS it goes through the opposite way.

Operation Theorem
After looking into the Symbols and Layouts, now we could start to understand how MOSFET works. In the discussion of layout, it is obvious that NMOS and PMOS are very similar to each other. So are the Operations.

NMOS Operations

Notations Vgs VTN Vds Vds(sat)

Definitions The voltage difference between Gate and Source The Threshold Voltage determined by materials and layout structure The voltage difference between Drain and Source The Vds value for NMOS to enter saturation region, Vds(sat)=Vgs-VTN

Figure 3 Common notations in NMOS

To describe the operation of NOMS engineers use certain notations represent the important values. Table 3 lists 3 most basic and important values which could help to understand the operation of NMOS.

Figure 4 Operations of NMOS When these are no voltage applying to the Gate, Vgs=0v, NMOS will be as an open switch which means no current will flow. Diagram4 (a) shows this situation. When Vgs is greater than 0v, the space between Drain and Source witch is called n-channel starts to accumulate Electrons. However the two terminals are not yet conducted. Only when

Vgs is equal or greater than the Threshold voltage VTN, the n channel starts to conduct current. Diagram4 (b) describes this situation.

After the NMOS conduct, we could vary the voltage difference between Drain and Source to control the amount of current flowing through NMOS. When Vds is smaller than Vds(sat). The relation between Vds and Id is linear. After Vds goes over the Vds(sat) value, the current saturates at certain level.

Figure 5 NMOS Vds vs. iD plot at a fixed Vgs

However, the amount of conducting current could still be adjusted by changing the Vgs. Figure 6, shows the current level changing due to the varying Vgs.

Figure 6 NMOS Vds vs. iD plot at a fixed Vgs at different levels of Vgs

PMOS Operations
PMOS operates in the same way as NMOS. However, due to the differences in materials and structure PMOS usually could only be conducted while a negative voltage applied to the Gate.

Figure 6 shows the voltage and current relation at different Vgs level. It is very similar to NMOS.

Figure 7 PMOS Vds vs. iD plot at a fixed Vgs at different levels of Vgs

Conclusion

MOSFET is the most fundamental device in an electronic product. From Device to System and final product, there are still many levels which could impact the behaviors of MOSFET and cause errors. However by using certain combinations engineers could remove these threatens. Also by manufacturing the better MOSFET, we could have more reliable electronic products.

Figure 8 Levels from MOSFET device to a System chip

Work cited
Cover page figure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSFET Figure 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law Figure 2: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~kyusun/class/cmpen411/12s/lec Figure 4: Neamen, Donald A. Microelectronics: Circuit Analysis and Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print Figure 6: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~kyusun/class/cmpen411/12s/lec Figure 7: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~kyusun/class/cmpen411/12s/lec Figure 8: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~kyusun/class/cmpen411/12s/lec