MOSFET Cross-Section

A MOSFET Transistor
Source Drain

Gate

Drain

Source

Gate

Substrate

MOSFET Schematic Symbols

Formation of the Channel for an Enhancement MOS Transistor

Water Analogy of a (subthreshold) MOSFET

Channel Current vs. Gate Voltage

Above-Threshold
450 400 350 300
-3 10 -4 10

Sub-Threshold
VT

Channel Current (mA)

Channel Current (A)

250
200 150 100 50 0 0 0.5 1

In linear scale, we have a quadratic dependence

-5 10 -6 10 -7 10 -8 10 -9 10 -10 10 -11 10 -12 10

Ith
In log-scale, we have an exponential dependence

VT

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Gate voltage (V)

Gate voltage (V)

MOS Capacitor Picture

MOSFET Channel Picture

MOS Capacitor Picture

MOS Electrostatics
Vfb

Condition is called flatband --- the voltage when this occurs is called flatband This state is the baseline operating case --- a capacitive divider has one free parameter

MOS Electrostatics

Depletion Condition --- gate charge is terminated by charged ions in the depletion region

Part of this region is often referred to as weak-inversion

MOS Electrostatics

Inversion --- further gate charge is terminated by carriers at the silicon--silicon-dioxide interface

MOS Structure Electrostatics

MOS Capacitor Picture

MOS-Capacitor Regions

Qs = e

(Y - Vs)/UT

Qs = ln( 1 + e

(k(Vg - VT) - Vs)/UT

Depletion (k(Vg - VT) - Vs < 0) Qs = e

(k(Vg - VT) - Vs)/UT

Inversion (k(Vg - VT) - Vs > 0) Qs = (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)/UT

MOS Capacitor Picture

MOSFET Channel Picture

Calculation of Drain Current

No recombination 0 0 0 dn d Dn 2 = Dn +G-R 2 dt dx

d n Dn 2 = 0 dx

Dn = Ax + B

nsource e - SC / uT

SC = VS - dC = Vd -

ndrain e
0 l nsource - ndrain dn = qDn J = qDn dx l

- dC / uT

varies as kVG

(e( I=I
0

kVg -VS ) /U T

-e

(kVg -Vd )/UT

MOSFET Current-Voltage Curves

I = I0 e

(kVg -VS )/ uT

-e

(kVg -Vd )/ uT

)
)

-V / u - / kV / u I DS = I 0 e G T e S T - e VD uT

= I 0e

(kVg -VS )/ uT

(-e ( 1
(

- Vd -VS )/ uT

= I 0 e ( kV G -VS ) / uT 1 - e -Vds / uT = I 0e
( kV G -VS ) / uT

Vds > 4U T Saturation

MOSFET Current-Voltage Curves

I = I0 e

(kVg -VS )/ uT

-e

(kVg -Vd )/ uT

)
)

-V / u - / KV / u I DS = I 0 e G T e S T - e VD uT

= I 0e

(kVg -VS )/ uT

(-e ( 1
(

- Vd -VS )/ uT

= I 0 e ( KVG -VS ) / uT 1 - e -VdS / uT = I 0e

( KVG -VS ) / uT

VdS > 4uT Saturation

Subthreshold MOSFETs
10
-6

nFET
10
-7

pFET
S

D G S

In linear scale, we have a quadratic dependence

G

Drain current (A)

10

-8

B
D

10

-9

10

-10

k = 0.58680 Io = 1.2104fA
0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 Gate voltage (V) 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9

In log-scale, we have an exponential dependence

10

-11

0.4

Determination of Threshold Voltage

1.1
1 0.9 Drain current / subthreshold fit 0.8 0.7 0.6

0.5
0.4 0.3

VT = 0.86

0.2
0.1 0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7 Gate voltage (V)

0.8

0.9

Drain Current --- Source Voltage

10
-7

10

-8

Drain current (A)

10

-9

UT = 25.84mV
10
-10

10

-11

10

-12

k = 0.545
0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 Source voltage (V) 0.8 0.85 0.9

Drain Characteristics

Origin of Drain Dependencies

Increasing Vd effects the drain-to-channel region:

increases barrier height

increases depletion width

Current versus Drain Voltage

Not flat due to Early effect (channel length modulation)
Id = Id(sat) (1 + (Vd/VA) ) or Id = Id(sat) e
Iout Vd/VA

Id(sat)

Rout

GND

Early Voltage Length Dependence

Width of depletion region depends on doping, not L Might expect Vo to linearly vary with L

MOSFET Operating Regions

Surface potential moving from depletion to inversion

Band-diagram picture moving from subthreshold to above-threshold

Qualitative Above-Threshold

I = (K/2k)

(( k(Vg - VT) - Vs )2 - (( k(Vg - VT) - Vd )2 )

Above Threshold MOSFET Equations

I = (K/2k) ( (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)2 - (k(Vg - VT ) - Vd) 2 ) If k = 1 (ignoring back-gate effects):
I = (K/2) ( 2(Vgs - VT) Vds - Vds2 ) Saturation: Qd = 0 I = (K/2k) ( (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)2

Detailed MOSFET Derivation

Q(x) = CT ( k(Vg - VT) - V(x))
Qs = CT ( k(Vg - VT) - Vs),

CT = CD + Cox
(k = Cox / CT)

Qd = CT ( k(Vg - VT) - Vd)

I = m Q(x) E(x) ( E(x) = Electric Field ) E(x) = - d V(x) dx

Current is constant through the channel (no loss)

= (1 / CT ) d Q(x) dx

I = (m / CT ) Q(x)

d Q(x) dx

Detailed MOSFET Derivation

Integrate with respect to length: I = (m / CT ) Q(x) d Q(x) dx

I L = (m / 2 CT ) Q(x)2

|Q

Qs = CT ( k(Vg - VT) - Vs)

d

= CT ( k(Vg - VT) - Vd)

I = (m / 2 CT ) ( 1 / L) Qs2
I = (m CT / 2 ) ( 1 / L) ( k(Vg - VT) - Vs) 2 K = m Cox (W/L) I = (K/2k)

-Q )
d 2

- ( k(V

- VT) - Vd)2 g

(( k(Vg - VT) - Vs )2 - (( k(Vg - VT) - Vd )2 )

MOSFET Equations
When ignoring back-gate effects (we often do): k=1 I = (K/2) ( (Vg - VT - Vs)2 - (Vg - VT - Vd) 2 )

Above-Threshold:

I = (K/2) ( 2(Vgs - VT) Vds - Vds2 ) Saturation: (Qd = 0) I = (K/2) (Vgs - VT )2

(Vd > Vg - VT )
I = Is e Subthreshold:
Vgs/UT

(1 e

-Vds/UT

)
Vgs/UT

Saturation: (Vds> 4 UT) I = Is e

Output Characteristics of the Above-Threshold MOSFET

iD /ID0 vDS = vGS - VT 1.0 vGS-VT = 1.0 VGS 0 - VT vGS-VT = 0.867 VGS 0 - VT vGS-VT = 0.707 VGS 0 - VT vGS-VT = 0.5 VGS 0 - VT vGS-VT = 0 VGS 0 - VT vDS VGS 0 - VT 2.5

Interpretation of large-signal model

iD vDS = vGS - VT

Active Region

Saturation Region Channel modulation effec ts

0.75 0.5 0.25 Cutoff Region 0 0

Increasing values of vGS vDS

Active Region

Saturation Region

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

MOSFETs
350 300

nFET
D G S

pFET
S B D G

250 Current (mA)

200

150

100

50

K = 37.861 mA/V2 VT = 0.806

0 0

0.5

1.5

2 2.5 3 Gate voltage (V)

3.5

4.5

Drain Current - Gate Voltage

0.02 0.018 0.016 sqrt(Drain current (A))

0.014
0.012 0.01 0.008 0.006 0.004 0.002 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

VT = 0.806

K k = 37.861 mA/V2
2.5 3 3.5 Gate voltage (V) 4 4.5 5

Drain Current --- Source Voltage

4 3.5 3 sqrt(Drain current (mA)) 2.5 2

K/k = 74.585 mA/V2

(k = 0.7)

1.5
1 0.5 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Gate voltage (V) 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

k (Vg - VT) = 0.595 (k = 0.54)

An Ohmic MOSFET
I = (K/2k) ( (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)2 - (k(Vg - VT ) - Vd) 2 ) If Vd ~ Vs, (small difference) I = K (Vg - VT)(Vd - Vs)

(Vd - Vs = 50mV)

A MOSFET in Saturation
Saturation: Qd = 0 I = (K/2k) ( (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)2 Vs = 0 I = (Kk/2) (Vg - VT) 2

More Ohmic Region Data

I = (K/2k) ( (k(Vg - VT) - Vs)2 - (k(Vg - VT ) - Vd) 2 ) Take the derivative of I with respect to Vd (Vs = 0 ) dI / d Vd = (K/2k)( 0 (-2) (k(Vg - VT ) - Vd) ) = (K/2k)(k(Vg - VT ) - Vd)

Influence of VDS on the Output Characteristics

Current versus Drain Voltage

Not flat due to Early effect (channel length modulation)
Id = Id(sat) (1 + (Vd/VA) ) or Id = Id(sat) e
Iout Vd/VA

Id(sat)

Rout

GND

Early Voltage Length Dependence

Width of depletion region depends on doping, not L Might expect Vo to linearly vary with L

Small-Signal Modeling
V3 V1 V2

I
V1

V2 I V3 gm

V1

+ V gmV ro

V3

V2 ro

V2 Av
2VA/(V1-V2 -VT)

Above VT MOSFET Sub VT MOSFET

2I /(V1-V2 -VT)

VA / I VA / I

I / UT

VA / UT

Small-Signal Modeling
V3 V1 V2 V3

I
V1 V2 rp

V1 rp V2 gm

+ V gmV ro

V3

V2 ro Av VA / UT
2VA/(V1-V2 -VT)

BJT Above VT MOSFET Sub VT MOSFET

(UT b) / I

I / UT
2I /(V1-V2 -VT)

VA / I
VA / I VA / I

I / UT

VA / UT

Capacitances in a MOSFET

MOSFET Depletion Capacitors

Overlap Capacitances

Capacitance Modeling

Capacitance Modeling

Velocity Saturation

Si Crystal Velocity Limit

Ideal Drift (Ohms Law)

Effect of Velocity Saturation

Square-law region

VT L = 76 nm MOSFET

Small-Signal Modeling (with kappa)

V3 V1 V2

I
V1

V2 I V3 gm

V1

+ V gmV ro

V3

V2 ro

V2 Av
2VA/(V1-V2 -VT)

Above VT MOSFET Sub VT MOSFET

2I /(V1-V2 -VT)

VA / I VA / I

kI / UT

kVA / UT

Small-Signal Modeling (with kappa)

V3 V1 V2 V3

I
V1 V2 rp

V1 rp V2 gm

+ V gmV ro

V3

V2 ro Av VA / UT
2VA/(V1-V2 -VT)

BJT Above VT MOSFET Sub VT MOSFET

(UT b) / I

I / UT
2I /(V1-V2 -VT)

VA / I
VA / I VA / I

kI / UT

kVA / UT