MOS Transistors

Yannis Tsividis

Intuitive Overview
of the MOS Transistor
These slides are based on Y. Tsividis and C.
McAndrew, Operation and Modeling of the
MOS Transistor, Copyright Oxford University
Press, 2011. They are meant to be part of a
lecture, and may be incomplete or may not even
make sense without the accompanying
narration.


Simplified view:

MOS: Metal-Oxide-Seminconductor
FET: Field-Effect Transistor
MOSFET
Can be very small; e.g., 100 nm on a side.

=
Based on Tsividis/McAndrew; Copyright Oxford University Press, 2011

Channel

The body is p-type, and normally contains

positive mobile charges (holes).
But the positive gate charges attract negatively
charged electrons in the channel.

Inversion:
Weak
Moderate
Strong

We say that inversion has taken place there.

Based on Tsividis/McAndrew; Copyright Oxford University Press, 2011

Source tank

Fluid-dynamical analog
Strong inversion:

GS

Channel Drain tank

GS

GS

GS

DS1

DS2

Based on Tsividis/McAndrew; Copyright Oxford University Press, 2011

Fluid-dynamical analog, contd

Weak inversion:
GS1

Moderate inversion:
GS3

Based on Tsividis/McAndrew; Copyright Oxford University Press, 2011

Based on Tsividis/McAndrew; Copyright Oxford University Press, 2011