Electronics II

Course Code: EEE 232

Lecture 03
Course Instructor: Dr. Hammad Omer (Tenured Associate Professor)
(PhD, MS, MCS, PGD (IT) B.Eng.)
Commonwealth Scholar (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
Group Lead: Medical Image Processing Research Group
(www.miprg.com)
Department of Electrical Engineering
COMSATS University, Islamabad
Dated: 19 & 21/02/2025
MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased

• Let VGS be held constant at a value greater than Vt

• VDS appears as a voltage drop across the length of the channel
• As we travel along the channel from Source to Drain, the
voltage (measures relative to the Source) increases from 0 to
VDS
• The voltage between the Gate and points along the channel
decreases from VGS at the Source end to VGS-VDS at the Drain
end
• Since the channel depth depends on this voltage, we find that
the channel is no longer of uniform depth; rather the channel
will be tapered , being deepest at the Source and shallowest at
the Drain end
• As VDS is increased, the channel becomes more tapered and its 2
resistance increases correspondingly
MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased

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MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased

• The iD-VDS curve does not continue as a straight line but bends
down as shown below:

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MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased
• Eventually, when VDS is increased to the value that reduces the
voltage between the Gate and the Channel at the Drain end to Vt
i.e. VGS-VDS = Vt or VDS = VGS - Vt, the channel depth at the Drain
end decreases to almost zero and the channel is said to be
‘Pinched-Off’
• Increasing VDS beyond this value has little or no effect on the
channel shape and the current through the channel remains
constant at the value reached for VDS = VGS-Vt
• The Drain current thus saturates at this value and the MOSFET is
said to have entered Saturation region of operation
• The voltage VDS at which saturation occurs is denoted as:
VDS = VGS-Vt
• For every value of VGS >= Vt, there is a corresponding value of
5
VDSsat
MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased

• The device operates in the Saturation region if VDS >= VDSSat

• The region of iD-VDS characteristic obtained for VDS < VDSSat is
called the Triode region

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MOSFET Operation as VDS is increased

• This figure shows sketches of the channel as VDS is increased

while VGS is kept constant
• Theoretically, any increase in VDS above VDSSat (which is equal
to VGS-Vt) has no effect on the channel shape and simply
appears across the depletion region surrounding the channel
and the n+ Drain region

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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship
• Assume that a voltage VGS is applied between Gate and Source
with VGS > Vt and a voltage VDS is applied between Drain and
Source
• First consider operation in the Triode region: i.e. VDS<VGS-Vt. The
channel will have a tapered shape
• Consider an infinitesimal portion of the channel of length dx at a
point x from the source, and let the voltage at this point be v(x)
• The voltage between the Gate and this point in the channel [VGS-
V(x)] must be greater than the Threshold Voltage Vt, and the
electron charge dq(x) in this infinitesimal portion of the channel
can be expressed as (–ve sign placed because of –ve charge):
dq ( x) = −CoxWd x [vGS − v( x) − vt ]
• Cox is the capacitance per unit area of the parallel plate capacitor
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formed by the Gate electrode and the channel
Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

• The oxide layer forms the dielectric of this capacitor, thus:

 ox
C ox =
t ox
• where  ox is the permittivity of SiO2 and tox is the thickness of
the oxide layer
• The voltage vDS produces an electric field along the channel in
the negative x direction: At x, this field can be expressed as:

dv ( x )
E ( x) = −
dx
• The electric field E(x) causes the electron charge dq(x) to drift
towards the Drain with a velocity dx/dt:

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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

dx
= −u n E ( x )
dt
dx dv ( x )
= un
dt dx
• where un is the electron mobility in the channel
• The resulting drift current can now be found by multiplying the
charge per unit length dq ( x ) by the drift velocity:
dx
dv ( x )
i = − u n C oxW [ vGS − v ( x ) − Vt ]
dx

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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

• The current i must be constant at all points along the channel,

and thus it must be negative of the Drain-to-Source current iD
giving: dv ( x )
i D = u n C oxW [ vGS − v ( x ) − Vt ]
dx
• which can be rearranged in the form:

iD dx = u n CoxW [vGS − Vt − v ( x )]dv ( x )

• Integrating both sides of this equation for x=0 to x=L, and
correspondingly for v(0)=0 to v(L)=vDS
L v DS

i D dx = u C n W [vGS − Vt − v ( x )] dv ( x )
ox
12
0 0
Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship
• It gives:

W 1
i D = (u n C ox )( )[( vGS − Vt ) v DS −
2
v DS ]
L 2
• This is the expression for the iD-vDS in the triode region
• The expression for the Saturation region can be obtained by
substituting: vDS = vGS – Vt , resulting:

1 W
iD = (u n C ox )( )( vGS − Vt ) 2
2 L
• which simply gives the value of the constant current (for a given
vGS in Saturation)
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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

• Here unCox is a constant determined by the processing

technology used to fabricate the MOS transistor. It is known as
the process transconductance parameter. It determines the
value of the MOSFET transconductance, and is denoted as kn’
and has the dimension of A/V2

k n ' = u n Cox
• The above equation can written in terms of kn’:
• Triode Region:
W 1
iD = k n ' [( vGS − Vt ) v DS −
2
v DS ]
L 2

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Derivation of iD-VDS Relationship

• Saturation Region:

1 W
iD = kn ' ( vGS − Vt ) 2

2 L
• Drain Current is proportional to the ratio of channel width W to
the channel length L, known as the ‘Aspect Ratio’ of the
MOSFET. The values of W and L can be selected by the circuit
designer to obtain the desired i-v characteristic

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The p-channel MOSFET
• A p-channel enhancement type MOSFET (PMOS transistor) is
fabricated on a n-type substrate with p+ regions for the Drain and
Source, and holes as charge carriers
• The device operates in the same manner as the n-channel device
except that vGS and vDS are negative and the threshold voltage Vt is
negative
• Also the current iD enters the Source terminal and leaves through
the Drain terminal
• PMOS technology was originally the dominant one. However
because NMOS devices can be made smaller and thus operate
faster, and because NMOS technology has virtually replaced PMOS
• However, PMOS devices are still available for Discrete Circuit
Design & both PMOS and NMOS transistors are utilized in
complementary MOS or CMOS circuits 16
Complementary MOS or CMOS

• Employs MOS transistor of both polarities

• Although CMOS circuits are more difficult to fabricate than NMOS,
the availability of CMOS devices makes possible many powerful
circuit design possibilities
• CMOS is the most useful of all the integrated circuit MOS
technologies

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Operating MOS Transistor in Sub-threshold
Region
• All the above description is n-channel MOSFET operation
implies that for vGS< vt, no current flows and the device is cut-
off
• However, it has been found that for the values of vGS smaller
than but close to Vt, a small drain current flows
• In this sub-threshold region of operation, the drain current is
exponentially related to vGS, much like ic-vBE relation of a BJT
• Although, in most applications the MOS transistor is operated
with vGS>Vt, there are special but a growing number of
applications that make use of sub-threshold operation

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The Depletion Type MOSFET

• The structure of Depletion-type MOSFET is similar to

Enhancement type MOSFET with one important difference i.e.
the Depletion MOSFET has a physically implanted channel
• Therefore, an n-channel depletion type MOSFET has an n-type
Silicon region connecting the n+ Source and the n+ Drain
regions at the top of p-type substrate
• Thus if a voltage vDS is applied between Drain and Source, a
current iD flows for vGS=0
• In other words, there is no need to induce a channel, unlike the
case of the Enhancement MOSFET
• The channel depth and hence its conductivity can be controlled
by vGS in exactly the same manner as in the enhancement type
device 19
The Depletion Type MOSFET

• Applying a positivie vGS enhances the channel by attracting more

electrons into it
• However, negative vGS causes electrons to be repelled from the
channel and thus the channel becomes shallower and its
conductivity decreases
• Therefore, the negative vGS is said to deplete the channel of its
charge carriers, and this mode of operation is called Depletion
Mode (-ve vGS)
• As the value of vGS is increased in the negative direction, a value is
reached at which the channel is completely depleted of charge
carriers and iD reduces to zero even though vDS may still be applied
• The –ve value of vGS is the Threshold voltage of the n-channel
depletion type MOSFET 20
The Depletion Type MOSFET
• A depletion type MOSFET can be operated in the Enhancement
mode by applying a +vGS and in the depletion mode by applying
a negative vGS
• The iD-vDS characteristics are similar to enhancement type
except that Vt of the n-channel depletion type is -ve

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The Depletion Type MOSFET

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