The MOSFET Metal Oxide FET

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 or IGFET.
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 MOSFETfor short.
The IGFET or MOSFET is a voltage controlled field effect transistor that
differs from a JFET in that it has a Metal Oxide Gate electrode which is
electrically insulated from the main semiconductor N-channel or P-channel
by a very thin layer of insulating material usually silicon dioxide, commonly
known as glass.
This ultra thin insulated metal gate electrode can be thought of as one plate
of a capacitor. The isolation of the controlling Gate makes the input
resistance of the MOSFET extremely high way up in the Mega-ohms ( M )
region thereby making it almost infinite.
As the Gate terminal is isolated from the main current carrying channel NO
current flows into the gate and just like the JFET, the MOSFET also acts
like a voltage controlled resistor were the current flowing through the main
channel between the Drain and Source is proportional to the input voltage.
Also like the JFET, this very high input resistance can easily accumulate
large amounts of static charge resulting in the MOSFET becoming easily
damaged unless carefully handled or protected.
Like the previous JFET tutorial, MOSFETs are three terminal devices with
a Gate, Drain and Source and both P-channel (PMOS) and N-channel

(NMOS) MOSFETs are available. The main difference this time is that
MOSFETs are available in two basic forms:

1. Depletion Type the transistor requires the Gate-Source

voltage, ( VGS ) to switch the device OFF. The depletion mode
MOSFET is equivalent to a Normally Closed switch.

2. Enhancement Type the transistor requires a Gate-Source

voltage, ( VGS ) to switch the device ON. The enhancement mode
MOSFET is equivalent to a Normally Open switch.

The symbols and basic construction for both configurations of MOSFETs

are shown below.

The four MOSFET symbols above show an additional terminal called

the Substrate and is not normally used as either an input or an output
connection but instead it is used for grounding the substrate. It connects to
the main semiconductive channel through a diode junction to the body or
metal tab of the MOSFET. Usually in discrete type MOSFETs, this substrate
lead is connected internally to the source terminal. When this is the case,
as in enhancement types it is omitted from the symbol for clarification.
The line between the drain and source connections represents the
semiconductive channel. If this is a solid unbroken line then this represents
a Depletion (normally closed) type MOSFET and if the channel line is
shown dotted or broken it is an Enhancement (normally open) type
MOSFET. The direction of the arrow indicates either a P-channel or an Nchannel device.

Basic MOSFET Structure and Symbol

The construction of the Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET is very different to

that of the Junction FET. Both the Depletion and Enhancement type

MOSFETs use an electrical field produced by a gate voltage to alter the

flow of charge carriers, electrons for N-channel or holes for P-channel,
through the semiconductive drain-source channel. The gate electrode is
placed on top of a very thin insulating layer and there are a pair of small Ntype regions just under the drain and source electrodes.
We saw in the previous tutorial, that the gate of a junction field effect
transistor, JFET must be biased in such a way as to reverse-bias the PNjunction. With a insulated gate MOSFET device no such limitations apply
so it is possible to bias the gate of a MOSFET in either polarity, positive
(+ve) or negative (-ve).
This makes the MOSFET device especially valuable as electronic switches
or to make logic gates because with no bias they are normally nonconducting and this high gate input resistance means that very little or no
control current is needed as MOSFETs are voltage controlled devices. Both
the P-channel and the N-channel MOSFETs are available in two basic
forms, the Enhancement type and the Depletion type.

Depletion-mode MOSFET
The Depletion-mode MOSFET, which is less common than the
enhancement types is normally switched ON without the application of a
gate bias voltage making it a normally-closed device. However, a gate to
source voltage ( VGS ) will switch the device OFF. Similar to the JFET
types. For an N-channel MOSFET, a positive gate voltage widens the
channel, increasing the flow of the drain current and decreasing the drain
current as the gate voltage goes more negative.
In other words, for an N-channel depletion mode MOSFET: +VGS means
more electrons and more current. While a -VGS means less electrons and
less current. The opposite is also true for the P-channel types. Then the
depletion mode MOSFET is equivalent to a normally-closed switch.

Depletion-mode N-Channel MOSFET and circuit

Symbols

The depletion-mode MOSFET is constructed in a similar way to their JFET

transistor counterparts were the drain-source channel is inherently
conductive with the electrons and holes already present within the N-type
or P-type channel. This doping of the channel produces a conducting path
of low resistance between the Drain and Source with zero Gate bias.

Enhancement-mode MOSFET

The more common Enhancement-mode MOSFET is the reverse of the

depletion-mode type. Here the conducting channel is lightly doped or even
undoped making it non-conductive. This results in the device being
normally OFF when the gate bias voltage is equal to zero.
A drain current will only flow when a gate voltage ( VGS ) is applied to the
gate terminal greater than the threshold voltage ( VTH ) level in which
conductance takes place making it a transconductance device. This
positive +ve gate voltage pushes away the holes within the channel
attracting electrons towards the oxide layer and thereby increasing the
thickness of the channel allowing current to flow. This is why this kind of
transistor is called an enhancement mode device as the gate voltage
enhances the channel.
Increasing this positive gate voltage will cause the channel resistance to
decrease further causing an increase in the drain current, ID through the
channel. In other words, for an N-channel enhancement mode
MOSFET: +VGS turns the transistor ON, while a zero or -VGS turns the
transistor OFF. Then, the enhancement-mode MOSFET is equivalent to a
normally-open switch.

Enhancement-mode N-Channel MOSFET and circuit

Symbols

Enhancement-mode MOSFETs make excellent electronics switches due to

their low ON resistance and extremely high OFF resistance as well as
their infinitely high gate resistance. Enhancement-mode MOSFETs are
used in integrated circuits to produce CMOS type Logic Gates and power
switching circuits in the form of as PMOS (P-channel) and NMOS (Nchannel) gates. CMOS actually stands for Complementary MOS meaning
that the logic device has both PMOS and NMOS within its design.

The MOSFET Amplifier

Just like the previous Junction Field Effect transistor, MOSFETs can be
used to make single stage class A amplifier circuits with the Enhancement
mode N-channel MOSFET common source amplifier being the most
popular circuit. The depletion mode MOSFET amplifiers are very similar to
the JFET amplifiers, except that the MOSFET has a much higher input
impedance.
This high input impedance is controlled by the gate biasing resistive
network formed by R1 and R2. Also, the output signal for the enhancement
mode common source MOSFET amplifier is inverted because when VG is
low the transistor is switched OFF and VD (Vout) is high. When VG is high
the transistor is switched ON and VD (Vout) is low as shown.

Enhancement-mode N-Channel MOSFET Amplifier

The DC biasing of this common source (CS) MOSFET amplifier circuit is

virtually identical to the JFET amplifier. The MOSFET circuit is biased in
class A mode by the voltage divider network formed by
resistors R1 and R2. The AC input resistance is given as RIN = RG = 1M.

Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors are three terminal

active devices made from different semiconductor materials that can act as
either an insulator or a conductor by the application of a small signal
voltage. The MOSFETs ability to change between these two states enables
it to have two basic functions: switching (digital electronics) or
amplification (analogue electronics). Then MOSFETs have the ability to
operate within three different regions:

1. Cut-off Region with VGS < Vthreshold the gate-source voltage is

lower than the threshold voltage so the MOSFET transistor is
switched fully-OFF and IDS = 0, the transistor acts as an open circuit

2. Linear (Ohmic) Region with VGS > Vthreshold and VDS > VGS the
transistor is in its constant resistance region and acts like a variable
resistor whose value is determined by the gate voltage, VGS

3. Saturation Region with VGS > Vthreshold the transistor is in its

constant current region and is switched fully-ON.
current IDS = maximum as the transistor acts as a closed circuit

The

MOSFET Summary
The Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor, or MOSFET for
short, has an extremely high input gate resistance with the current flowing
through the channel between the source and drain being controlled by the
gate voltage. Because of this high input impedance and gain, MOSFETs
can be easily damaged by static electricity if not carefully protected or
handled.
MOSFETs are ideal for use as electronic switches or as common-source
amplifiers as their power consumption is very small. Typical applications for
metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors are in Microprocessors,
Memories, Calculators and Logic CMOS Gates etc.

Also, notice that a dotted or broken line within the symbol indicates a
normally OFF enhancement type showing that NO current can flow
through the channel when zero gate-source voltage VGS is applied.
A continuous unbroken line within the symbol indicates a normally ON
Depletion type showing that current CAN flow through the channel with
zero gate voltage. For P-channel types the symbols are exactly the same
for both types except that the arrow points outwards. This can be
summarised in the following switching table.

MOSFET type

VGS = +ve

VGS = 0

VGS = -ve

N-Channel Depletion

ON

ON

OFF

N-Channel Enhancement

ON

OFF

OFF

P-Channel Depletion

OFF

ON

ON

P-Channel Enhancement

OFF

OFF

ON

So for N-channel enhancement type MOSFETs, a positive gate voltage

turns ON the transistor and with zero gate voltage, the transistor will be
OFF. For a P-channel enhancement type MOSFET, a negative gate
voltage will turn ON the transistor and with zero gate voltage, the
transistor will be OFF. The voltage point at which the MOSFET starts to
pass current through the channel is determined by the threshold
voltage VTH of the device and is typical around 0.5V to 0.7V for an Nchannel device and -0.5V to -0.8V for a P-channel device.
In the next tutorial about Field Effect Transistors instead of using the
transistor as an amplifying device, we will look at the operation of the
transistor in its saturation and cut-off regions when used as a solid-state
switch. Field effect transistor switches are used in many applications to
switch a DC current ON or OFF such as LEDs which require only a few

milliamps at low DC voltages, or motors which require higher currents at

higher voltages.