Junction Field Effect

Transistor
(JFET)
• The Junction Field Effect Transistor, or JFET, is a voltage controlled
three terminal unipolar semiconductor device in which current
conduction is by one type of carrier i.e. electrons or holes.
• The current conduction is controlled by means of an electric field
between the gate and the conducting channel of the device.
 Normal transistor is a current controlled device which needs current for
biasing, whereas JFET is a voltage controlled device.
JFET has three terminals Gate, Drain, and Source.
We can use JFET as voltage controlled resistors or as a switch, or even
make an amplifier using the JFET. It is also an energy efficient version to
replace the BJTs. JFET provides low power consumption and fairly low
power dissipations, thus improving the overall efficiency of the circuit.
• In the above image, we can see the basic construction of a JFET.
• The N-Channel JFET consists of P-type material in N-type substrate whereas N-
type materials are used in the p-type substrate to form a P channel JFET.
• JFET is constructed using the long channel of semiconductor material.
Depending on the construction process, if the JFET contains a great number of
positive charge carriers (refers as holes) is a P-type JFET, and if it has a large
number of negative charge carriers (refers as electrons) is called N-type JFET.
• In the long channel of semiconductor material, Ohmic contacts at each end
are created to form the Source and Drain connections.
• A P-N junction is formed in one or both side of the channel.
Construction of JFET

A JFET consists of a p-type or n-type silicon bar containing two pn junctions at the sides as
shown
The bar in fig. the conducting channel for the charge carriers.
forms
If the bar is of p-type, it is called p-channel JFET as shown in fig.1 and if the bar is of n-type,
it is called n-channel JFET as shown in fig2.
The two pn junctions forming diodes are connected internally and a common terminal
called gate is taken out.
Other terminals are source and drain taken out from the bar as shown in fig
In each case, the voltage between the gate and source is such that
the gate is reverse biased.
The source and the drain terminals are interchangeable.
The following points may be noted:
1.The input circuit ( i.e. gate to source) of a JFET is reverse biased.
This means that the device has high input impedance.
2.The drain is so biased w.r.t. source that drain current I D flows from
the source to drain.
3.In all JFETs, source current IS is equal to the drain current i.e IS = ID
Working of JFET
• The two pn junctions at the sides form two depletion layers.
• The current conduction by charge carriers (i.e. electrons) is through the channel between the two
depletion layers and out of the drain.
• The width and hence resistance of this channel can be controlled by changing the input voltage V GS.
• The greater the reverse voltage VGS, the wider will be the depletion layer and narrower will be the
conducting channel.
• The narrower channel means greater resistance and hence source to drain current decreases.
• Reverse will happen when VGS decreases.
• Thus JFET operates on the principle that width and hence resistance of the conducting channel can
be varied by changing the reverse voltage VGS.
• In other word, the magnitude of drain current ID can be changed by altering VGS.
 Case i

• When a voltage VDS is applied between drain and source terminals and
voltage on the gate is zero as shown in fig.3(i), the two pn junctions at
the sides of the bar establish depletion layers.
• The electrons will flow from source to drain through a channel
between the depletion layers.
• The size of the depletion layers determines the width of the channel
and hence current conduction through the bar.
Case ii

• When a reverse voltage VGS is applied between gate and source terminals, as shown in
fig.ii, the width of depletion layer is increased.
• This reduces the width of conducting channel, thereby increasing the resistance of n-
type bar.
• Consequently, the current from source to drain is decreased.
• On the other hand, when the reverse bias on the gate is decreased, the width of the
depletion layer also decreases.
• This increases the width of the conducting channel and hence source to drain current.
• A p-channel JFET operates in the same manner as an n-channel JFET except that channel
current carriers will be the holes instead of electrons and polarities of V GS and
VDS are reversed.
Characteristics of JFET

In the above I-V image, we can see three graphs, for three different values of V GS voltages, 0V, -2V and -4V.
There are three different regions Ohmic, Saturation, and Breakdown region. During the Ohmic region, the
JFET acts like a voltage controlled resistor, where the current flow is controlled by voltage applied to it. After
that, the JFET gets into the saturation region where the curve is almost straight. That means the current flow
is stable enough where the VDS would not interfere with the current flow. But when the VDS is much more than
the tolerance, the JFET gets into the breakdown mode where the current flow is uncontrolled.
• ohmic Region – When VGS = 0 the depletion layer of the channel is very small
and the JFET acts like a voltage controlled resistor.
• Cut-off Region – This is also known as the pinch-off region were the Gate
voltage, VGS is sufficient to cause the JFET to act as an open circuit as the
channel resistance is at maximum.
• Saturation or Active Region – The JFET becomes a good conductor and is
controlled by the Gate-Source voltage, ( VGS ) while the Drain-Source voltage,
( VDS ) has little or no effect.
• Breakdown Region – The voltage between the Drain and the Source, ( VDS ) is
high enough to causes the JFET’s resistive channel to break down and pass
uncontrolled maximum current.
Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)
• MOSFET’s operate the same as JFET’s but have a gate terminal that is
electrically isolated from the conductive channel.
• As well as the Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET), there is another
type of Field Effect Transistor available whose Gate input is electrically
insulated from the main current carrying channel and is therefore
called an Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor.
• The most common type of insulated gate FET which is used in many
different types of electronic circuits is called the Metal Oxide
Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor or MOSFET for short.
Construction
• The MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) transistor is
a semiconductor device which is widely used for switching and amplifying
electronic signals in the electronic devices.
• The MOSFET is a core of integrated circuit and it can be designed and
fabricated in a single chip because of these very small sizes. The MOSFET is a
four terminal device with source(S), gate (G), drain (D) and body (B)
terminals.
• The body of the MOSFET is frequently connected to the source terminal so
making it a three terminal device like field effect transistor.
• The MOSFET is very far the most common transistor and can be used in both
analog and digital circuits.
• There are two types of MOSFET namely N channel MOSFET and P
channel MOSFET.
• In NMOS, current flows due to the flow of electrons and in PMOS,
current flows due to holes.
• It is made up of p type doped silicon substrate.
• Two highly N type doped region (N+) are formed.
• Insulation region is formed by silicon di oxide.
• A layer of metal (aluminium) is placed above the insulation.
working
• When positive voltage is applied to the gate, it repels holes from p type
substrate. Positive voltage also attracts electrons from N+ drain and source. Thus
N channel is formed.
• If voltage is applied between drain and source, current flows between source
and drain.
• Thus the gate voltage controls the current flow. Higher the gate voltage, higher
the current flow and so it is voltage controlled device.
• Two modes of operations are present
• Depletion mode and Enhancement mode.
• The negative gate operation is called depletion mode and positive gate operation
is called enhancement mode