Field Effect Transistor
Field Effect Transistor
This article is about the electrical component. For other Source and drain terminal conductors are connected to
things FET could stand for, see Fet (disambiguation) the semiconductor through ohmic contacts. The conducAbbreviations.
tivity of the channel is a function of the potential applied
across the gate and source terminals.
The eld-eect transistor (FET) is a transistor that uses The FETs three terminals are:[3]
an electric eld to control the shape and hence the electrical conductivity of a channel of one type of charge car Source (S), through which the carriers enter the
rier in a semiconductor material. FETs are also known as
channel. Conventionally, current entering the chanunipolar transistors as they involve single-carrier-type
nel at S is designated by IS.
operation. The FET has several forms, but all have high
input impedance. While the conductivity of a non-FET
Drain (D), through which the carriers leave the
transistor is regulated by the input current (the emitter to
channel. Conventionally, current entering the chanbase current) and so has a low input impedance, a FETs
nel at D is designated by ID. Drain-to-source voltage
conductivity is regulated by a voltage applied to a termiis VDS.
nal (the gate) which is insulated from the device. The
applied gate voltage imposes an electric eld into the de Gate (G), the terminal that modulates the channel
vice, which in turn attracts or repels charge carriers to
conductivity. By applying voltage to G, one can conor from the region between a source terminal and a drain
trol ID.
terminal. The density of charge carriers in turn inuences
the conductivity between the source and drain.
History
Oxide
Source
Gate
Drain
Legende
unipolare Transistoren
B ... Bulk-Anschluss
D ... Drain
G ... Gate
S ... Source
Sperrschicht-FET
(NIGFET)
MISFET
(IGFET)
p-Kanal
Anreicherungstyp
(enhancement)
p-Kanal
n-Kanal
Verarmungstyp
(depletion)
Anreicherungstyp
(enhancement)
n-Kanal
Verarmungstyp
(depletion)
FET OPERATION
(or lack of voltage) applied across the gate and source terminals. (For simplicity, this discussion assumes that the
body and source are connected.) This conductive channel
is the stream through which electrons ow from source
to drain.
4.1.1 n-channel
FET operation
In an n-channel depletion-mode device, a negative gateto-source voltage causes a depletion region to expand in
width and encroach on the channel from the sides, narrowing the channel. If the active region expands to completely close the channel, the resistance of the channel
from source to drain becomes large, and the FET is eectively turned o like a switch(see right gure, when there
is very small current). This is called pinch-o, and the
voltage at which it occurs is called the pinch-o voltage.
Conversely, a positive gate-to-source voltage increases
the channel size and allows electrons to ow easily (see
right gure, when there is a conduction channel and current is large).
4.1
I DS
VDS
SAT
Linear region
VGS - VP
Saturation region
VGS0 = 0
VGS1 < VGS0
VGS2 < VGS1
Saturation
region
Channel
o
VGS
VP
Linear
region
VGS4
<V
Vp
VDS
4.1.2 p-channel
In a p-channel depletion-mode device, a positive voltage from gate to body creates a depletion layer
by forcing the positively charged holes to the gateThe FET controls the ow of electrons (or electron holes) insulator/semiconductor interface, leaving exposed a
from the source to drain by aecting the size and shape of carrier-free region of immobile, negatively charged aca conductive channel created and inuenced by voltage ceptor ions.
4.2
Eect of source/drain voltage on chan- Among the more unusual body materials are amorphous
silicon, polycrystalline silicon or other amorphous seminel
Even though the conductive channel formed by gate-tosource voltage no longer connects source to drain during
saturation mode, carriers are not blocked from owing.
Considering again an n-channel enhancement-mode device, a depletion region exists in the p-type body, surrounding the conductive channel and drain and source regions. The electrons which comprise the channel are free
to move out of the channel through the depletion region
if attracted to the drain by drain-to-source voltage. The
depletion region is free of carriers and has a resistance
similar to silicon. Any increase of the drain-to-source
voltage will increase the distance from drain to the pincho point, increasing the resistance of the depletion region in proportion to the drain-to-source voltage applied.
This proportional change causes the drain-to-source current to remain relatively xed, independent of changes
to the drain-to-source voltage, quite unlike its ohmic behavior in the linear mode of operation. Thus, in saturation mode, the FET behaves as a constant-current source
rather than as a resistor, and can eectively be used as
a voltage amplier. In this case, the gate-to-source voltage determines the level of constant current through the
channel.
Composition
7
The JFET (junction eld-eect transistor) uses a reverse biased pn junction to separate the gate from
the body.
The MOSFET (metaloxidesemiconductor eldeect transistor) utilizes an insulator (typically
SiO2 ) between the gate and the body.
The MNOS (metalnitrideoxidesemiconductor)
transistor utilizes an nitride-oxide layer insulator between the gate and the body.
The DGMOSFET (dual-gate MOSFET) is a FET
with two insulated gates.
The DEPFET is a FET formed in a fully depleted
substrate and acts as a sensor, amplier and memory
node at the same time. It can be used as an image
(photon) sensor.
The FREDFET (fast-reverse or fast-recovery epitaxial diode FET) is a specialized FET designed to
provide a very fast recovery (turn-o) of the body
diode.
The HIGFET (heterostructure insulated gate eldeect transistor) is now used mainly in research.[12]
The MODFET (modulation-doped eld-eect transistor) uses a quantum well structure formed by
graded doping of the active region.
The TFET (tunnel eld-eect transistor) is based on
band-to-band tunneling.[13]
The IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) is a device for power control. It has a structure akin to a
MOSFET coupled with a bipolar-like main conduction channel. These are commonly used for the 200
3000 V drain-to-source voltage range of operation.
Power MOSFETs are still the device of choice for
drain-to-source voltages of 1 to 200 V.
The HEMT (high-electron-mobility transistor), also
called a HFET (heterostructure FET), can be made
using bandgap engineering in a ternary semiconductor such as AlGaAs. The fully depleted wide-bandgap material forms the isolation between gate and
body.
The ISFET (ion-sensitive eld-eect transistor) can
be used to measure ion concentrations in a solution;
when the ion concentration (such as H+ , see pH electrode) changes, the current through the transistor
will change accordingly.
The BioFET (Biologically sensitive eld-eect
transistor) is a class of sensors/biosensors based
on ISFET technology which are utilized to detect charged molecules; when a charged molecule
is present, changes in the electrostatic eld at
the BioFET surface result in a measurable change
ADVANTAGES OF FET
7 Advantages of FET
One advantage of the FET is its high gate to main current resistance, on the order of 100 M or more, thus
providing a high degree of isolation between control and
ow. Because base current noise will increase with shaping time,[19] a FET typically produces less noise than a
bipolar junction transistor (BJT), and is thus found in
noise sensitive electronics such as tuners and low-noise
ampliers for VHF and satellite receivers. It is relatively
immune to radiation. It exhibits no oset voltage at zero
drain current and hence makes an excellent signal chopper. It typically has better thermal stability than a BJT.[3]
Because they are controlled by gate charge, once the gate
is closed or opened, there is no additional power draw, as
there would be with a bipolar junction transistor or with
non-latching relays in some states. This allows extremely
low-power switching, which in turn allows greater miniaturization of circuits because heat dissipation needs are
reduced compared to other types of switches.
Disadvantages of FET
10 Source-gated transistor
Source-gated transistors are more robust to manufacturIt has a relatively low gainbandwidth product com- ing and environmental issues in large-area electronics
pared to a BJT. The MOSFET has a drawback of being such as display screens, but are slower in operation than
very susceptible to overload voltages, thus requiring spe- FETs.[21]
cial handling during installation.[20] The fragile insulating layer of the MOSFET between the gate and channel
makes it vulnerable to electrostatic damage or changes to
threshold voltage during handling. This is not usually a 11 See also
problem after the device has been installed in a properly
Chemical eld-eect transistor
designed circuit.
FETs often have a very low 'on' resistance and have a high
'o' resistance. However the intermediate resistances are
signicant, and so FETs can dissipate large amounts of
power while switching. Thus eciency can put a premium on switching quickly, but this can cause transients
that can excite stray inductances and generate signicant
voltages that can couple to the gate and cause unintentional switching. FET circuits can therefore require very
careful layout and can involve trades between switching
speed and power dissipation. There is also a trade-o between voltage rating and 'on' resistance, so high voltage
FETs have a relatively high 'on' resistance and hence conduction losses.
FET amplier
ISFET
MOSFET
Quantum eld eect transistor
12 References
[1] 1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor
Demonstrated - The Silicon Engine | Computer History
Museum
[2] Jacob Millman (1985). Electronic devices and circuits.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill International. p. 397. ISBN
0-07-085505-6.
Uses of FET
[3] Millman (1985). Electronic devices and circuits. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. pp. 384385. ISBN 0-07-0855056.
[4] C Galup-Montoro; Schneider MC (2007). MOSFET modeling for circuit analysis and design. London/Singapore:
World Scientic. p. 83. ISBN 981-256-810-7.
[5] Norbert R Malik (1995). Electronic circuits: analysis, simulation, and design. Englewood Clis, NJ: Prentice Hall.
pp. 315316. ISBN 0-02-374910-5.
[6] RR Spencer; Ghausi MS (2001). Microelectronic circuits.
Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Education/Prentice-Hall.
p. 102. ISBN 0-201-36183-3.
[7] A. S. Sedra; K.C. Smith (2004). Microelectronic circuits
(Fifth ed.). New York: Oxford. p. 552. ISBN 0-19514251-9.
[8] PR Gray; PJ Hurst; SH Lewis; RG Meyer (2001). Analysis and design of analog integrated circuits (Fourth ed.).
New York: Wiley. pp. 1.5.2 p. 45. ISBN 0-471-321680.
A common use of the FET is as an amplier. For example, due to its large input resistance and low output resis- [9] IBM creates rst graphene based integrated circuit
tance, it is eective as a buer in common-drain (source
[10] Lin, Y.-M.; Valdes-Garcia, A.; Han, S.-J.; Farmer, D.
follower) conguration.
IGBTs are used in switching internal combustion engine
ignition coils, where fast switching and voltage blocking
capabilities are important.
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14.3
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