EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Lecture 11:
MOS Transistor

Prof. Niknejad

Department of EECS

University of California, Berkeley

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Lecture Outline

Review: MOS Capacitors Regions

MOS Capacitors (3.8 3.9)

CV Curve
Threshold Voltage

MOS Transistors (4.1 4.3):

Overview
Cross-section and layout
I-V Curve

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOS Capacitor
Oxide (SiO2)

ox 3.9 0
Gate (n+ poly)

0
Body (p-type substrate)

Very Thin!

tox ~ 1nm

s 11.7 0

MOS = Metal Oxide Silicon

Sandwich of conductors separated by an insulator
Metal is more commonly a heavily doped polysilicon
layer n+ or p+ layer
NMOS p-type substrate, PMOS n-type substrate

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Accumulation: VGB < VFB

QG Cox (VGB VFB )

VGB VFB

QB QG

++++++++++++++++++

Body (p-type substrate)

( x)

( x)

Essentially a parallel plate capacitor

Capacitance is determined by oxide thickness:

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Depletion: VFB<VGB < VT

QG (VGB ) QB

VGB VFB +

( x)

tox

++ + + + + + + ++

Body (p-type substrate)

( x)
QB qN a X d (VGB )

Positive charge on gate terminates on negative charges in

depletion region
Potential drop across the oxide and depletion region
Charge has a square-root dependence on applied bias

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Inversion
s
VGB VT

ns ni e

tox

xdep

++ + + + + + + ++

Body (p-type substrate)

( x)

qs
kT

( x)

Na

The surface potential increases to a point where the electron

density at the surface equals the background ion density
At this point, the depletion region stops growing and the
extra charge is provided by the inversion charge at surface

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Threshold Voltage

The threshold voltage is defined as the gate-body voltage

that causes the surface to change from p-type to n-type
For this condition, the surface potential has to equal the
negative of the p-type potential
Apply KCL around loop:
Gate (n poly)
V V

VGS VFB Vox VBS

GB

VBS

s VBS 2 p
s
Vox Eox tox
tox Es
ox
qN a xdep qN a 2 s
2qN a (2 p )
Es

s
s
s qN a
s
1
VTn VFB 2 p
2q s N a (2 p )
Cox

Vox

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Inversion Stops Depletion

A simple approximation is to assume that once

inversion happens, the depletion region stops
growing
This is a good assumption since the inversion
charge is an exponential function of the surface
potential
Under this condition:
QG (VTn ) QB ,max
QG (VGB ) Cox (VGB VTn ) QB ,max

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Q-V Curve for MOS Capacitor

QG
er
v
in

dep

ac

m
cu

io
at
l
u

l et i o

on
i
s

QN (VGB )

QB ,max

VFB

VTn

VGB (V )

In accumulation, the charge is simply proportional

to the applies gate-body bias
In inversion, the same is true
In depletion, the charge grows slower since the
voltage is applied over a depletion region

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Numerical Example

MOS Capacitor with p-type substrate:

tox 20nm

N a 5 1016 cm 3

Calculate flat-band:
VFB (n p ) (550 (402)) 0.95V

Calculate threshold voltage:

ox 3.45 1013 F/cm

Cox

tox
2 10-6 cm
1
VTn VFB 2 p
2q s N a (2 p )
Cox

2 1.6 1019 1.04 1012 5 1016 2 0.4

VTn .95 2(0.4)
0.52V
Cox

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Num Example: Electric Field in Oxide

Apply a gate-to-body voltage:

VGB 2.5 VFB

Device is in accumulation
The entire voltage drop is across the oxide:
Vox VGB n p 2.5 0.55 (0.4)
5 V
Eox

10
tox
tox
2 106
cm

The charge in the substrate (body) consist of holes:

QB Cox (VGB VFB ) 2.67 107 C/cm 2

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Numerical Example: Depletion Region

In inversion, whats the depletion region width and

charge?
VB ,max s p p p 2 p 0.8V
VB ,max
X d ,max

1 qN a
2

X
d ,max
2 s
2 sVB ,max
qN a

144nm

QB ,max qN a X d ,max 1.15 107 C/cm 2

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOS CV Curve
QG

Cox

Cox

QN (VGB )

QB ,max
VFB

VTn

VGB (V )

VFB

VTn

VGB

Small-signal capacitance is slope of Q-V curve

Capacitance is linear in accumulation and inversion
Capacitance is depletion region is smallest
Capacitance is non-linear in depletion

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

C-V Curve Equivalent Circuits

Cox

Cdep

Cox

Cdep Cox

Cox
Cox
Ctot

Cdep
s tox
Cdep Cox
1

1
ox xdep
Cox
In accumulation mode the capacitance is just due to the
voltage drop across tox
Cdep

xdep

Cox

In inversion the incremental charge comes from the

inversion layer (depletion region stops growing).
In depletion region, the voltage drop is across the oxide and
the depletion region

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOSFET Cross Section

gate
body

source

drain
diffusion regions

p+

n+

n+

p-type substrate

Add two junctions around MOS capacitor

The regions forms PN junctions with substrate
MOSFET is a four terminal device
The body is usually grounded (or at a DC potential)
For ICs, the body contact is at surface

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOSFET Layout
poly gate

contact
G
B

p+

n+

n+

xj

p-type substrate
L

Planar process: complete structure can be specified

by a 2D layout
Design engineer can control the transistor width W
and L
Process engineer controls tox, Na, xj, etc.

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

PMOS & NMOS

G
B

p+

n+

G
B

n+

p+

n+

xj

p-type substrate
NMOS

p+

xj

n-type substrate
PMOS

A MOSFET by any other name is still a MOSFET:

NMOS, PMOS, nMOS, pMOS

NFET, PFET
IGFET
Other flavors: JFET, MESFET

CMOS technology: The ability to fabricated NMOS

and PMOS devices simultaneously

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

CMOS
G

p+

n+

n+

xj

n+

p+

p+

xj

n-type well
PMOS

NMOS

p-type substrate

Complementary MOS: Both P and N type devices

Create a n-type body in a p-type substrate through
compensation. This new region is called a well.
To isolate the PMOS from the NMOS, the well must be
reverse biased (pn junction)

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Circuit Symbols

The symbols with the arrows are typically used in

analog applications
The body contact is often not shown
The source/drain can switch depending on how the
device is biased (the device has inherent symmetry)

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Observed Behavior: ID-VGS

I DS
I DS

VDS

VGS
VT

VGS

Current zero for negative gate voltage

Current in transistor is very low until the gate
voltage crosses the threshold voltage of device
(same threshold voltage as MOS capacitor)
Current increases rapidly at first and then it finally
reaches a point where it simply increases linearly

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Observed Behavior: ID-VDS

VGS 4V

I DS / k
non-linear resistor region
resistor region

I DS

constant current

VDS

VGS 3V
VGS

VGS 2V
VDS

For low values of drain voltage, the device is like a resistor

As the voltage is increases, the resistance behaves non-linearly
and the rate of increase of current slows
Eventually the current stops growing and remains essentially
constant (current source)

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

Linear Region Current

VGS VTn
S
p+

G
D

n+

n+
p-type

NMOS

VDS 100mV

x
Inversion layer
channel

If the gate is biased above threshold, the surface is

inverted
This inverted region forms a channel that connects
the drain and gate
If a drain voltage is applied positive, electrons will
flow from source to drain

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOSFET Linear Region

The current in this channel is given by

I DS Wv y QN

The charge proportional to the voltage applied

across the oxide over threshold
QN Cox (VGS VTn )

I DS Wv y Cox (VGS VTn )

If the channel is uniform density, only drift current

flows
VDS
v y n E y

I DS

W
nCox (VGS VTn )VDS
L

Ey

VGS VTn VDS 100mV

EECS 105 Fall 2003, Lecture 11

Prof. A. Niknejad

MOSFET: Variable Resistor

Notice that in the linear region, the current is

proportional to the voltage
I DS

W
nCox (VGS VTn )VDS
L

Can define a voltage-dependent resistor

VDS
1
L
L
Req

RW(VGS )
I DS n Cox (VGS VTn ) W
W

This is a nice variable resistor, electronically

tunable!