Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) (pronounced /ˈsiːmɒs/) is a technology

for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors,

microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for
several analog circuits such as image sensors, data converters, and highly integrated transceivers
for many types of communication. Frank Wanlass patented CMOS in 1967 (US patent
3,356,858).

CMOS is also sometimes referred to as complementary-symmetry metal-oxide-

semiconductor (or COS-MOS[1]). The words "complementary-symmetry" refer to the fact that
the typical digital design style with CMOS uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type
and n-type metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) for logic functions.

Two important characteristics of CMOS devices are high noise immunity and low static power
consumption. Significant power is only drawn while the transistors in the CMOS device are
switching between on and off states. Consequently, CMOS devices do not produce as much
waste heat as other forms of logic, for example transistor-transistor logic (TTL) or NMOS logic,
which uses all n-channel devices without p-channel devices. CMOS also allows a high density of
logic functions on a chip. It was primarily this reason why CMOS won the race in the eighties
and became the most used technology to be implemented in VLSI chips.

The phrase "metal-oxide-semiconductor" is a reference to the physical structure of certain field-

effect transistors, having a metal gate electrode placed on top of an oxide insulator, which in turn
is on top of a semiconductor material. Aluminum was once used but now the material is
polysilicon. Other metal gates have made a comeback with the advent of high-k dielectric
materials in the CMOS process, as announced by IBM and Intel for the 45 nanometer node and
beyond.[2]

Technical details
"CMOS" refers to both a particular style of digital circuitry design, and the family of processes
used to implement that circuitry on integrated circuits (chips). CMOS circuitry dissipates less
power than logic families with resistive loads. Since this advantage has increased and grown
more important, CMOS processes and variants have come to dominate, thus the vast majority of
modern integrated circuit manufacturing is on CMOS processes.[3] As of 2010, the CPUs with the
best performance per watt each year have been CMOS static logic since 1976.[citation needed]

CMOS circuits use a combination of p-type and n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect

transistors (MOSFETs) to implement logic gates and other digital circuits found in computers,
telecommunications equipment, and signal processing equipment. Although CMOS logic can be
implemented with discrete devices (for instance, in an introductory circuits class), typical
commercial CMOS products are integrated circuits composed of millions (or hundreds of
millions) of transistors of both types on a rectangular piece of silicon of between 10 to 400mm2.
[citation needed]
These devices are commonly called "chips", although within the industry they are also
referred to as "die" (singular) or "dice", "dies", or "die" (plural).
[edit] Composition
The main principle behind CMOS circuits that allows them to implement logic gates is the use of
p-type and n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors to create paths to the output
from either the voltage source or ground. When a path to output is created from the voltage
source, the circuit is said to be pulled up. The other circuit state occurs when a path to output is
created from ground and the output pulled down to the ground potential.

[edit] Inversion

Static CMOS Inverter

CMOS circuits are constructed so that all PMOS transistors must have either an input from the
voltage source or from another PMOS transistor. Similarly, all NMOS transistors must have
either an input from ground or from another NMOS transistor. The composition of a PMOS
transistor creates low resistance between its source and drain contacts when a low gate voltage is
applied and high resistance when a high gate voltage is applied. On the other hand, the
composition of an NMOS transistor creates high resistance between source and drain when a low
gate voltage is applied and low resistance when a high gate voltage is applied.

The image on the right shows what happens when an input is connected to both a PMOS
transistor (top of diagram) and an NMOS transistor (bottom of diagram). When the voltage of
input A is low, the NMOS transistor's channel is in a high resistance state. This limits the current
that can flow from Q to ground. The PMOS transistor's channel is in a low resistance state and
much more current can flow from the supply to the output. Because the resistance between the
supply voltage and Q is low, the voltage drop between the supply voltage and Q due to a current
drawn from Q is small. The output therefore registers a high voltage.

On the other hand, when the voltage of input A is high, the PMOS transistor is in an off (high
resistance) state so it would limit the current flowing from the positive supply to the output,
while the NMOS transistor is in an on (low resistance) state, allowing the output to drain to
ground. Because the resistance between Q and ground is low, the voltage drop due to a current
drawn into Q placing Q above ground is small. This low drop results in the output registering a
low voltage.

In short, the outputs of the PMOS and NMOS transistors are complementary such that when the
input is low, the output is high, and when the input is high, the output is low. Because of this
opposite behavior of input and output, the CMOS circuits' output is the inversion of the input.

[edit] Duality

An important characteristic of a CMOS circuit is the duality that exists between its PMOS
transistors and NMOS transistors. A CMOS circuit is created to allow a path always to exist
from the output to either the power source or ground. To accomplish this, the set of all paths to
the voltage source must be the complement of the set of all paths to ground. This can be easily
accomplished by defining one in terms of the NOT of the other. Due to the De Morgan's laws
based logic, the PMOS transistors in parallel have corresponding NMOS transistors in series
while the PMOS transistors in series have corresponding NMOS transistors in parallel.

[edit] Logic

NAND gate in CMOS logic

More complex logic functions such as those involving AND and OR gates require manipulating
the paths between gates to represent the logic. When a path consists of two transistors in series,
then both transistors must have low resistance to the corresponding supply voltage, modeling an
AND. When a path consists of two transistors in parallel, then either one or both of the
transistors must have low resistance to connect the supply voltage to the output, modeling an
OR.

Shown on the right is a circuit diagram of a NAND gate in CMOS logic. If both of the A and B
inputs are high, then both the NMOS transistors (bottom half of the diagram) will conduct,
neither of the PMOS transistors (top half) will conduct, and a conductive path will be established
between the output and Vss (ground), bringing the output low. If either of the A or B inputs is
low, one of the NMOS transistors will not conduct, one of the PMOS transistors will, and a
conductive path will be established between the output and Vdd (voltage source), bringing the
output high.

An advantage of CMOS over NMOS is that both low-to-high and high-to-low output transitions
are fast since the pull-up transistors have low resistance when switched on, unlike the load
resistors in NMOS logic. In addition, the output signal swings the full voltage between the low
and high rails. This strong, more nearly symmetric response also makes CMOS more resistant to
noise.

See Logical effort for a method of calculating delay in a CMOS circuit.

[edit] Example: NAND gate in physical layout

The physical layout of a NAND circuit. The larger regions of N-type diffusion and P-type
diffusion are part of the transistors. The two smaller regions on the left are taps to prevent
latchup.

This example shows a NAND logic device drawn as a physical representation as it would be
manufactured. The physical layout perspective is a "bird's eye view" of a stack of layers. The
circuit is constructed on a P-type substrate. The polysilicon, diffusion, and n-well are referred to
as "base layers" and are actually inserted into trenches of the P-type substrate. The contacts
penetrate an insulating layer between the base layers and the first layer of metal (metal1) making
a connection.

The inputs to the NAND (illustrated in green coloring) are in polysilicon. The CMOS transistors
(devices) are formed by the intersection of the polysilicon and diffusion: N diffusion for the N
device; P diffusion for the P device (illustrated in salmon and yellow coloring respectively). The
output ("out") is connected together in metal (illustrated in cyan coloring). Connections between
metal and polysilicon or diffusion are made through contacts (illustrated as black squares). The
physical layout example matches the NAND logic circuit given in the previous example.

The N device is manufactured on a P-type substrate. The P device is manufactured in an N-type

well (n-well). A P-type substrate "tap" is connected to VSS and an N-type n-well tap is connected
to VDD to prevent latchup.

Cross section of two transistors in a CMOS gate, in an N-well CMOS process

[edit] Power: switching and leakage

CMOS logic dissipates less power than NMOS logic circuits because CMOS dissipates power
only when switching ("dynamic power"). On a typical ASIC in a modern 90 nanometer process,
switching the output might take 120 picoseconds, and happen once every ten nanoseconds.
NMOS logic dissipates power whenever the output is low ("static power"), because there is a
current path from Vdd to Vss through the load resistor and the n-type network.

CMOS circuits dissipate power by charging the various load capacitances (mostly gate and wire
capacitance, but also drain and some source capacitances) whenever they are switched. The
charge moved is the capacitance multiplied by the voltage change. Multiply by the switching
frequency on the load capacitances to get the current used, and multiply by voltage again to get
the characteristic switching power dissipated by a CMOS device: P = CV2f.

An additional form of power consumption became significant in the 1990s as wires on chip
became narrower and the long wires became more resistive. CMOS gates at the end of those
resistive wires see slow input transitions. During the middle of these transitions, both the NMOS
and PMOS networks are partially conductive, and current flows directly from Vdd to Vss. The
power thus used is called crowbar power. Careful design which avoids weakly driven long
skinny wires has ameliorated this effect, and crowbar power is nearly always substantially
smaller than switching power.

Both NMOS and PMOS transistors have a gate–source threshold voltage, below which the
current (called subthreshold current) through the device drops exponentially. Historically,
CMOS designs operated at supply voltages much larger than their threshold voltages (Vdd might
have been 5 V, and Vth for both NMOS and PMOS might have been 700 mV). A special type of
the CMOS transistor with near zero threshold voltage is the native transistor.

To speed up designs, manufacturers have switched to constructions that have lower voltage
thresholds;[citation needed] but because of this a modern NMOS transistor with a Vth of 200 mV has a
significant subthreshold leakage current. Designs (e.g. desktop processors) which include vast
numbers of circuits which are not actively switching still consume power because of this leakage
current. Leakage power is a significant portion of the total power consumed by such designs.
Further technology advances that use even thinner gate dielectrics have an additional leakage
component because of current tunnelling through the extremely thin gate dielectric. Using high-k
dielectrics instead of silicon dioxide that is the conventional gate dielectric allows similar device
performance, but with a thicker gate insulator, thus avoiding this current. Leakage power
reduction using new material and system design is critical to sustaining scaling of CMOS. A
good overview of leakage and reduction methods are explained in the book Leakage in
Nanometer CMOS Technologies ISBN 0-387-25737-3.

[edit] Analog CMOS

Besides digital applications, CMOS technology is also used in analog applications. For example,
there are CMOS operational amplifier ICs available in the market. Transmission gates may be
used instead of signal relays. CMOS technology is also widely used for RF circuits all the way to
microwave frequencies, in mixed-signal (analog+digital) applications.

[edit] Temperature range

Conventional CMOS devices work over a range of −55 °C to +125 °C. There were theoretical
indications as early as August 2008 that silicon CMOS will work down to 40 K, or −233 °C.[4]
Functioning temperatures near 40 K have since been achieved using overclocked AMD Phenom
II processors with a combination of liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooling. [5]
CMOS

Also known as a Real Time Clock (RTC), Non-Volatile RAM

(NVRAM) or CMOS RAM, CMOS is short for Complementary Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor. CMOS is an on-board semiconductor chip powered by a CMOS battery inside
computers that stores information such as the system time and date and the system hardware
settings for your computer. A CMOS is similar to the Apple Macintosh computer's PRAM. To
the right is an image of a CMOS battery on a IBM compatible computers motherboard and the
most common CMOS battery you're likely to encounter with your computer.

The bottom right picture contains other examples of batteries that

may be used in a computers to power the CMOS memory. As mentioned above the most
common type of battery is the coin cell battery (lithium battery), usually about the size of a U.S.
Nickel.

The standard lifetime of a CMOS battery is around 10 Years. However, this can vary depending
on the use and environment that the computer resides.

 Information about entering CMOS setup can be found on document CH000192.

 Steps on replacing the CMOS battery or removing from the motherboard is found on document
CH00239.
  See our CMOS help page for a full listing of help and support information about the CMOS.

BIOS setup

A program used to display and edit user configurable settings in the BIOS of a PC. On earlier
PCs, users had to change a setting when a new drive was added, but auto-detect features were
later added. Although many settings are quite arcane and only changed by experienced
technicians, users might want to change the boot order of their PCs (see first boot sequence).

The BIOS setup has also been called the "CMOS setup" or the "CMOS RAM," because user
settings were initially held in a tiny, battery-backed CMOS memory bank that is part of the PC's
real-time clock circuit. Subsequently, more user configuration settings were stored in the BIOS
flash memory.

Accessed at Startup
The BIOS setup is accessed at startup. Soon after a PC is turned on, a short text message
typically passes by very quickly on screen indicating which key to press (usually the DEL or F1
key). If no message appears, refer to the system manual. See BIOS, hard disk configuration and
BIOS Upgrades.
BIOS Setup Program
Despite its many functions and the important role it plays in running your PC, the system BIOS
is most "famous" for the BIOS setup program, the little built-in utility that lets you set the many
functions that control how your computer works. In fact, some people even call this program "the
BIOS" or "the CMOS" which of course is inaccurate ("CMOS" refers to the technology used to
create the tiny memory where the BIOS settings are stored).

Definition of a CMOS Battery

By Jason Artman, eHow Contributor

updated: September 21, 2009

Every computer motherboard has certain custom settings that can be adjusted by the owner, such
as the date and time. These settings are saved by the computer, which prevents you from needing
to re-enter them every time you turn the machine off. This is accomplished by a battery, a
component of the motherboard that adds a great deal of convenience to using a computer but is
noticed by few.
 Background
1. In your computer is a chip called the BIOS. This chip contains all of the basic instructions that tell
your motherboard how to operate. However, every motherboard has several settings that can
be changed by the user, including the date and time, the types of drives installed in the
computer, the system bus speed and more. These settings cannot be saved to the BIOS, because
the BIOS exists on a type of memory that cannot be written to called ROM. To retain your
settings, the motherboard also has a second type of memory called the CMOS. CMOS memory
can be written to, but it also requires a very small electrical current in order to retain this
information. Therefore, the CMOS is powered by a battery. Because of the CMOS battery, all of
your settings are saved even when the computer is turned off or disconnected from a power
source.

Using the Battery

2. Although you cannot interact with the CMOS battery itself, you will need to use the CMOS
whenever you want to make adjustments to the configuration of your computer's motherboard.
To do this, you will need to tap a key on your keyboard immediately after turning the computer
on. Your screen will display which key to press to enter the motherboard's setup utility. Often,
the Delete or F2 keys are used.

Battery Problems
3. Normally, a CMOS battery will last several years. However, they do die eventually, and if you
have an older motherboard, this may eventually become a concern for you. Many computers
continue to draw a small amount of current from the wall even when they are "turned off", and
if this is the case with your computer, your CMOS will retain your settings even if the battery is
dead. However, if you have ever noticed that your computer's date and time have been reset
after turning the computer off or following a power outage, your battery needs to be replaced.

Replacing the Battery

4. If your CMOS battery has died, examine your motherboard for a circular metal object resembling
an oversized watch battery. This is your CMOS battery. Remove it from its metal clip and bring it
to your local electronics store. They will be able to help you find a battery that is compatible.
Unfortunately, some CMOS batteries are soldered to the motherboard, and unless you are very
confident with your soldering skills, these batteries cannot be replaced. You will either have to
live with the problem or replace the motherboard.

Other Concerns
 5.

A leaking CMOS battery.

Although it is rare, CMOS batteries can leak, causing battery acid to corrode the motherboard.
An issue such as this can cause anything from computer instability to non-operation, depending
on which area of the motherboard is corroded. Unfortunately, if this happens to your CMOS
battery, the motherboard will have to be replaced.

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