Transistors

Introduction to Transistors
 Transistors form the basic
building blocks of all computer
hardware.
 Invented by William Shockley,
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain
in 1947, replacing previous
vacuum-tube technology.
 Won Nobel Prize for Physics
in 1956.
 Used for applications such as amplification,
switching and digital logic design.
What do transistors do?
 Transistors connect Point A to Point B, based
on the value at Point C.
 If the value at Point C is high, A & B are connected.
C = 1
A B
A B

 And if the value at Point C is low, A & B are not.

C = 0
A B
A B

 Need to know a little about electricity now….

Where do transistors fit?

Logic Gates

Transistors

pn-junctions

Semiconductors
Electricity
Electricity Basics
Intro to Electricity
 Electricity is the the flow of charged particles
(usually electrons) through a material.
 These charged particles
come from atoms, which
are made up of protons
(positive charge), neutrons
(no charge) and electrons
(negative charge)
 Electricity stems from electron movement.
 Electricity = electrons
 Electrical particles (like
electrons) want to flow
from regions of high
electrical potential (many
electrons) to regions of low
electrical potential (not as
many electrons).
 Similar to gravitational potential
 This potential is referred to as voltage.
 The rate of electron flow is called the current.
 Water Analogy
 To help picture this concept of
voltage and current, imagine a
reservoir:
 Electrons flow from high to low
potential like water would flow
from the reservoir to the ground.
 Voltage is like the elevation of the
water above the ground.
 Current is the rate at which the
water flows.
 The relationship between
voltage (V) and current (I) is
called resistance: R = V/I
A Note about Current
 Even though current is caused by electrons
flowing through a material, the convention is to
measure current as the movement of positive
charges.
 Protons don’t actually move. When electrons move
from point A to point B, the result is that B becomes
more negative and A becomes more positive.
 Scientists historically viewed current in terms of this
creation of positive charge in a material.
 It’s not completely clear why scientists decided this.
Just go with it 
 Static electricity example
 When you shuffle your feet
back and forth on a carpet,
you pick up extra electrons
in your body and develop
an electrical imbalance,
relative to the ground.
 When you touch an object
or person who is
electrically balanced, those
extra electrons transfer
over to that object or
person.
Van de Graaff Generator
 Sources of electricity
 Where do these electrons (and
this electricity) come from?
 Two common sources:
 Batteries have a concentration of
particles stored inside them up
that will run out eventually (like
water reservoirs).
 Most electricity that we use
comes from electrical outlets, that
are constantly being supplied with
electric particles that never run
out (like waterfalls).
 Discussion point: power bars.
The path of electricity
 A few things to note about the path
that electric particles like to take:
 Current always flows toward the zero
voltage point of a circuit.
 Commonly referred to as ground.
 Electricity always like to take the path of
least resistance, from source to ground.
 Even though electrical current is the flow
of electrons through a medium, its
direction is typically expressed as the
movement of the positive charges.
Electricity Example
Using electricity
 Knowing that electric
particles want to travel
from areas of high
concentration to areas
of low concentration, we can use this to drive
circuits.
 Each of these circuits has a source of electrical
particles, some path between this source and the
ground, and some resistance along this path that
dissipates these electrons.
 Resistance is Futile
 In the water analogy, resistance would be measure
how restrictive the pipe is that connects the
reservoir to the ground.
 Wide, smooth pipe = low resistance
 Narrow, twisty pipe = high resistance
 Electrical resistance indicates how well a material
allows electricity to flow through it:
 High resistance (aka insulators) don’t conduct electricity at
all, or only under special circumstances.
 Low resistance (aka conductors) conduct electricity well,
and are generally used for wires.
 These are largely determined by the position on the
element on the periodic table.
 Measured in ohms (). More ohms, more resistance.
 Semiconductors are somewhere in between
conductors and insulators.
Semiconductors
What are semiconductors?
 Electricity can flow
freely through a
solid if there are free
valence electrons in
the outer layer after
the solid is formed.
 Semiconductor
materials (silicon, germanium) straddle the
boundary between conductors and insulators,
behaving like one or the other, depending on
factors like temperature and impurities in the
material.
 Semiconductor Conductivity
 Semiconductors are solid
and stable at room
temperature, but energy
can make electrons from
the valence layer become
loose.
 At room temperature, a weak current will flow
through the material, much less than that of a
conductor.
 Adding Impurities
 Semiconductors don’t conduct electricity naturally.
 Silicon has 4 electrons in its outer (valence) electron layer.
 Each atom wants 8, forms a lattice with its neighbours.
 To encourage the semiconductor’s
conductivity, impurities are introduced in
the fabrication process, to increase the
number of free charge carriers.
 n-type: adding elements from group 15,
which have 5 electrons in its valence layer
(e.g. phosphorus, arsenic).
 p-type: adding elements from group 13,
which have 3 electrons in its valence layer
(e.g. boron).
 This process is also referred to as doping
the semiconductor.
Impurities
 In the case of n-type
semiconductors, the
carriers are electrons
that are not bound to
the solid, and can flow
more freely through the material.
 For p-type semiconductors, the carriers are
called holes, to represent the electron gap as
a particle as well.
Bringing p and n together
 What would happen if you brought some p-
type material into contact with some n-type
material?
Si Si Si Si P Si Si P Si Si P Si
- - -
-
n-type
Si P Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si P -

Si Si Si Si Si B Si Si B Si Si Si
-
-
-
-
p-type
-
Si Si B Si Si Si Si B Si Si Si B

 The electrons at the surface of the n-type

material are drawn to the holes in the p-type.
 p-n Junctions
 When left alone, the
electrons from the n
section of the junction
will mix with the holes of the p section,
cancelling each other out, and creating a
particle-free section called the depletion layer.
 Once this depletion layer is wide enough, the
doping atoms that remain will create an electric
field in that region.
 Electric fields
 What is an electric field?
 An electric field is created when
a charge difference exists between
two regions.
 Any electrons in the middle would
be attracted to the positive side and –

repelled by the negative side.

 Example: depletion layer
 When a phosphorus atom loses its
electron, that atom develops an
overall positive charge.
 Similarly, when a boron atom takes on an extra electron,
that atom develops an overall negative charge.
 This creates an electric field in the depletion layer.
 Electric fields
 A depletion layer is made up
of many of these electrically
imbalanced phosphorus and
boron atoms.
 The electric field caused by
these atoms will cause holes
to flow back to the p section, and electrons to flow
back to the n section.
 The current caused by this electric field is called drift.
 The current caused by the initial electron/hole
recombination is called diffusion.
 At rest, these two currents reach equilibrium.
 Forward Bias
 What happens when a voltage
is applied to this junction?
 It depends on the direction in
which the voltage is applied.
 Forward bias:
 When a positive voltage is applied to the p end of this
junction, electrons are injected into the n-type section.
 This narrows the depletion layer and increasing the
electron diffusion rate.
 With a smaller depletion layer, the electrons
travel more easily through to the p-type section,
and back into the other terminal of the voltage
source
 Reverse Bias
 Reverse bias:
 When a positive voltage is
applied to the n side of the
junction, the depletion region
at the junction becomes wider,
preventing the carriers from passing.
 a small current still flows through the circuit, but it is
weak and does not increase with an increase in the
applied voltage.
 So when a junction is forward biased, it becomes
like a virtual short-circuit, and when the junction is
reverse biased, it becomes like a virtual open-
circuit.
 This is the basis of transistors!
Transistors, finally
 Creating transistors
 Transistors use the characteristics of p-n
junctions to create more interesting
behaviour.
 Three main types:
 Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)
 Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor
(MOSFET)
 Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET)
 The last two are part of the same family, but
we’ll only look at the MOSFET for now.
The MO of MOSFETs

 Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors

are composed of a layer of semiconductor material,
with two layers on top of the semiconductor:
 An oxide layer that doesn’t conduct electricity,
 A metal layer (called the gate), that can have an electric
charge applied to it
 These are the M and O components of MOSFETs.
 The S of MOSFETs
 The semiconductor
sections are two
pockets of n-type
material, resting on
a substrate layer
of p-type material.
 A voltage is applied
across the two n-type sections, called the drain
and the source. No current will pass between
them though, because the p section in between
creates at least one reverse-biased pn junction.
Applying voltage to NPN

+
–
n n
p
depletion
n n reverse
p layer
biased

+
–
n n
p
depletion
layer
 n-channel MOSFETs
 However, when a voltage
is applied between the
source and the metal
plate (the gate), positive
charges are built up in the
metal layer, which attracts
a layer of negative charge to
the surface of the p-type material.
 This layer of electrons creates an n-type channel
between the drain and the source, connecting the
two and allowing current to flow between them.
 the wider the channel, the higher the current
Applying voltage to NPN
Gate (metal
layer over
oxide layer)

+
–
+
–
+
–

+ +++ +++

n n n n
p p
reverse n-type
biased channel

n-type channel creates path between

source and drain for current to conduct!
 nMOS vs pMOS
 Two types of MOSFETs exist,
based on the semiconductor
type in the drain and source,
and the channel formed.

 nMOS transistors (the design

described so far) conduct
electricity when a positive voltage
(5V) is applied to the gate.

 pMOS transistors (indicated by a

small circle above the gate)
conduct electricity (i.e., act as a
closed switch) when the gate
voltage is logic-zero.
Transistors to Gates
MOSFET Truth Table
 MOSFETs can make current VDS VGS IDS
flow, based on the voltage Low Low Low
values in the gate and drain. Low High Low
 i.e. the truth table on the right. High Low Low
 One final step: combining High High High
MOSFETS to create high and
low voltage outputs, based on high and low
voltage inputs.
 General approach: create transistor circuits that
make current flow to outputs from high or low
voltage, based on transistor input values.
 Making gates
 Since these transistors aren’t simply Vcc

on/off switches, digital logic gates

(AND, OR, NOT) are created by a A Y
combination of transistors
 Examples: NOT gate circuit in diagram. 0V

 Physical data:
 “High” input (aka Vcc) = 5V
 “Low” input (aka Ground) = 0V A Y
 Switching time  120 picoseconds
 Switching interval  10 ns
 NAND is most common logic gate
Transistors into gates

Vcc Vcc Vcc Vcc Vcc

A A B A A

B B
B Y

Y B Y

A B A
A A
0V 0V 0V
B B

0V 0V
Note: Vcc = “Common Collector Voltage”
= high voltage (5 V)
 Transistor Fabrication
 Transistors are not
formed by pushing large
chunks of n- and p-type
semiconductors
together.
 Transistors are now
made by bombarding
silicon with doping
substances to create the
layers for each junction
 Surface is oxidized in
between stages to ensure
that only the necessary
sections are doped.
Fabrication Process