Chapter 2

MOS Transistor Theory

Jin-Fu Li
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab.
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Central University
Jhongli, Taiwan
 Outline
 Introduction
 I-V Characteristics of MOS Transistors
 Nonideal I-V Effects
 Pass Transistor
 Summary

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 2

 MOS Transistor
 MOS transistors conduct electrical current by using
an applied voltage to move charge from the source
side to the drain side of the device
 An MOS transistor is a majority-carrier device
 In an n-type MOS transistor, the majority carriers
are electrons
 In a p-type MOS transistor, the majority carriers are
holes
 Threshold voltage
 It is defined as the voltage at which an MOS device begins
to conduct (“turn on”)
 MOS transistor symbols
NMOS PMOS

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 3

 MOS Transistor
 So far, we have treated transistors as ideal switches
 An ON transistor passes a finite amount of current
 Depends on terminal voltages
 Derive current-voltage (I-V) relationships
 Transistor gate, source, drain all have capacitance
 I = C (V/t) -> t = (C/I) V
 Capacitance and current determine speed
 The structure of a MOS transistor is symmetric
 Terminals of source and drain of a MOS can be exchanged

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 4

 Vg & Channel for P-Type Body
Accumulation mode Polysilicon Gate
Silicon Dioxide Insulator
Vg<0
P-type Body

Depletion mode
Depletion Region
0<Vg<Vt

Inversion mode
Inversion Region
Vg>Vt Depletion Region

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 5

 NMOS Transistor in Cutoff Mode

Vgs=0 Vgd
g
s d
n+ n+

p-type body

 Cutoff region
 The source and drain have free electrons
 The body has free holes but no free electrons
 The junction between the body and the source or
drain are reverse-biased, so almost zero current flows

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 6

 NMOS Transistor in Linear Mode
Vgs>Vt Vgd=Vgs Vgs>Vt Vgs>Vgd>Vt

g g
s d s d Ids

n+ n+ n+ n+
p-type body p-type body
Vds=0 0<Vds<Vgs-Vt

 Linear region
 A.k.a. resistive, nonsaturated, or unsaturated region
 If Vgd=Vgs, then Vds=Vgs-Vgd=0 and there is no electrical field
tending to push current from drain to source
 If Vgs>Vgd>Vt, then 0<Vds<Vgs-Vt and there is a small positive
potential Vds is applied to the drain , current Ids flows through the
channel from drain to source
 The current increases with both the drain and gate voltage
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 7
NMOS Transistor in Saturation Mode
Vgs>Vt Vgd<Vt

g
s d Ids

n+ n+

p-type body
Vds>Vgs-Vt

 Saturation region
 The Vds becomes sufficiently large that Vgd<Vt, the channel is no longer
inverted near the drain and becomes pinched off
 However, conduction is still brought about by the drift of electrons
under the influence of the positive drain voltage
 As electrons reach the end of the channel, they are injected into the
depletion region near the drain and accelerated toward the drain
 The current Ids is controlled by the gate voltage and ceases to be
influenced by the drain
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 8
 NMOS Transistor
In summary, the NMOS transistor has three
modes of operations
 If Vgs<Vt, the transistor is cutoff and no current
flows
 If Vgs>Vt and Vds is small, the transistor acts as a
linear resistor in which the current flow is
proportional to Vds
 If Vgs>Vt and Vds is large, the transistor acts as a
current source in which the current flow becomes
independent of Vds
The PMOS transistor operates in just the
opposite fashion

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 9

 I-V Characteristics of MOS
 In linear and saturation regions, the gate attracts
carriers to form a channel
 The carriers drift from source to drain at a rate
proportional to the electric field between these
regions
 MOS structure looks like parallel plate capacitor while
operating in inversion
Vg
 Gate–oxide–channel

N+ N+

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 10

 Channel Charge
Vg

Vs Vd

Cg
Vc
n+ n+

 Qchannel=Cg(Vgc-Vt) , where Cg is the capacitance of the

gate to the channel and Vgc-Vt is the amount of voltage
attracting charge to the channel beyond the minimal
required to invert from p to n
 Vc=(Vs+Vd)/2=Vs+Vds/2
 Therefore, Vgc=(Vgs+Vgd)/2=Vgs-Vds/2
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 11
 Gate Capacitance (Cg)
 Transistor dimensions
tOX

W Gate

N+ N+

 The gate capacitance is

 C g   ox WL
t ox

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 12

 Carrier Velocity
Charge is carried by e-
Carrier velocity v proportional to lateral E-
field between source and drain
 v = E, where  is called mobility
E = Vds/L
Time for carrier to cross channel:
t = L / v

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 13

 NMOS Linear I-V
Now we know
 How much charge Qchannel is in the channel
 How much time t each carrier takes to cross
 Qchannel
I ds 
t
 Cox
W V  V  Vds V
 gs  ds
 2 
t
L

  Vgs  Vt 
Vds 
Vds
 2 

W
 Where  =  C o x
L

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 14

 NMOS Saturation I-V
If Vgd<Vt, channel pinches off near drain
 When Vds>Vdsat = Vgs–Vt
Now drain voltage no longer increases current

I ds   Vgs  Vt  dsat Vdsat
V
 2

  Vt 
2
 V gs
2

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 15

Summary of NMOS I-V Characteristics

 0 Vgs  Vt cutoff


I ds    Vgs  Vt  ds V V  V
V
 ds linear
 2 
ds dsat

 
Vgs  Vt 
2
 Vds  Vdsat saturation
2

2.5
Vds=Vgs-Vt Vgs = 5

2
Linear Saturation
1.5 Vgs = 4
Ids (mA)

1
Vgs = 3
0.5
Vgs = 2
Vgs = 1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Vds

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 16

 Example
 Assume that the parameters of a technology are as
follows 2.5
Vgs = 5
 tox = 100 Å
2
  = 350 cm2/V*s
 Vt = 0.7 V 1.5 Vgs = 4

Ids (mA)
 Plot Ids vs. Vds 1
Vgs = 3
 Vgs = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 0.5
Vgs = 2
 Use W/L = 4/2  Vgs = 1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Vds

 14 F 
 
cm 2   W
3 . 9 8 . 85 10
   120
W W
   C ox  350  8
cm A / V 2
L V s 100  10 cm  L  L
 
 

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 17

 Nonideal I-V Effects
 Nonideal I-V effects
 Velocity saturation, mobility degradation, channel length
modulation, subthreshold conduction, body effect, etc.
 The saturation current increases less than quadratically
with increasing Vgs. This is caused by two effects:
 Velocity saturation
 Mobility degradation
 Velocity saturation
 At high lateral field strengths (Vds/L), carrier velocity ceases
to increase linearly with field strength
 Result in lower Ids than expected at high Vds
 Mobility degradation
 At high vertical field strengths (Vgs/tox), the carriers scatter
more often
 Also lead to less current than expected at high Vgs
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 18
 Channel Length Modulation
 Ideally, Ids is independent of Vds for a transistor in
saturation, making the transistor a perfect current
source
 I ds  1  W Cox (Vgs  Vt ) 2
2 L
 Actually, the width Ld of the depletion region between
the channel and drain is increased with Vdb. To avoid
introducing the body voltage into our calculations,
assume the source voltage is close to the body voltage
so Vdb~Vds
 Thus the effective channel length is shorten to Leff=L-Ld
 Therefore, the Ids can be expressed as
1 W 1 W 1
I ds   Cox (Vgs  Vt ) 2   Cox (Vgs  Vt ) 2
2 Leff 2 L L
1 d
L
 Assume that L d
 1 , then
1 W L L 1 W
I ds   Cox (Vgs  Vt ) 2 (1  d )   Cox (Vgs  Vt ) 2 (1  Vds )
2 L L 2 L
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 19
 Channel Length Modulation
 The parameter  is an empirical channel length
modulation factor
 As channel length gets shorter, the effect of the
channel length modulation becomes relatively more
important
 Hence  is inversely dependent on channel length
 This channel length modulation model is a gross
oversimplification of nonlinear behavior and is more
useful for conceptual understanding than for accurate
device modeling
 Channel length modulation is very important to analog
designers because it reduces the gain of amplifiers. It
is generally unimportant for qualitatively
understanding the behavior of digital circuits
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 20
 Body Effect
 Body effect
 Vt is a function of voltage between source and substrate

0.9

0.85

0.8

0.75

0.7
V (V)

0.65
T

0.6

0.55

0.5

0.45
Degree
0.4
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0
V (V) Low High
BS

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 21

 Mobility Variation
 Mobility 
 It describes the ease with which carriers drift in
the substrate material
 It is defined by
 =(average carrier drift velocity, v)/(electrical field, E)
 Mobility varies according to the type of
charge carrier
 Electrons have a higher mobility than holes
 Thus NMOS has higher current-producing capability than
the corresponding PMOS
 Mobility decreases with increasing doping-
concentration and increasing temperature

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 22

 Drain Punchthrough & Hot Electrons
 Drain punchthrough
 When the drain voltage is high enough, the
depletion region around the drain may extend to
source. Thus, causing current to flow irrespective
of the gate voltage
 Hot electrons
 When the source-drain electric field is too large,
the electron speed will be high enough to break
the electron-hole pair. Moreover, the electrons
will penetrate the gate oxide, causing a gate
current

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 23

 Subthreshold Conduction
 Subthreshold region
 The cutoff region is also referred to as the subthreshold
region, where Ids increases exponentially with Vds and Vgs
 Observe in the following figure that at Vgs<Vt, the current
drops off exponentially rather than abruptly becoming zero

Ids
Saturation Vds=1.8
1 mA
Subthreshold region
100 uA region
10 uA
1 uA
100 nA
10 nA Subthreshold
1 nA slope
100 pA
Vt
10 pA
0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8
Vgs

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 24

 Junction Leakage
 The p-n junctions between diffusion and the
substrate or well form diodes
 The p-type and n-type substrates are tied to GND or
Vdd to ensure these diodes remain reverse-biased
 However, reverse-biased diodes still conduct a small
amount of current
V
IL D

 I L  I S (e vT
 1) , VD: diode voltage; vT: thermal voltage
(about 26mv at room temperature)
 In modern transistors with low threshold voltages,
subthreshold conduction far exceeds junction leakage

N+ N+

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 25

 Temperature Dependence
 The magnitude of the threshold voltage decreases
nearly linearly with temperature
 Carrier mobility decreases with temperature
 Junction leakage increases with temperature because
Is is strongly temperature dependent
 The following figure shows how the current Idsat
decreases with temperature
250
240

Idsat (uA) 230

220

210

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Temperature (C)
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 26
 Geometry Dependence
 The layout designer draws transistors with width and
length Wdraw and Ldraw. The actual gate dimensions may
differ by some factors XW and XL
 E.g., the manufacturer may create masks with narrower
polysilicon or may overetch the polysilicon to provide shorter
channels (negative XL)
 Moreover, the source and drain tend to diffuse laterally
under the gate by LD, producing a shorter effective
channel length that the carriers must traverse between
source and drain. Similarly, diffusion of the bulk by WD
decreases the effective channel width
 Therefore, the actually effective channel length and
width can be expressed as
 Leff=Ldraw+XL-2LD
 Weff=Wdraw+XW-2WD
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 27
 MOS Small Signal Model
(Vsb=0) Cgd
Gate Drain

Cgs+Cgb gmVgs gds Cdb

Source

Linear region Saturation region

W 1 1 W
I ds   C ox [( V gs  V t )V ds  V ds2 ] I ds   C ox (V gs  V t ) 2
L 2 2 L
dI ds W
g ds   C ox [(V gs  V t )  V ds ] g ds  0
dV ds L
dI ds W W
gm  | (V ds  const .)   C ox V ds gm   C ox (V gs  V t )
dV gs L L

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 28

 Pass Transistor
 NMOS pass transistor
 Cload is initially discharged, i.e., Vout=Vss
 If Vin=Vdd and VS=Vdd, the Vout=Vdd-Vtn
 If Vin=Vss and VS=Vdd, the Vout=Vss

Vin Vout
Cload
S

 PMOS pass transistor

 If Vin=Vdd and V-S=Vss, the Vout=Vdd
 If Vin=Vss and V-S=Vss, the Vout=Vtp

Vin Vout
Cload
-S

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 29

 Pass Transistor Circuits

VDD VDD VDD

VDD VDD
VDD
Vs = VDD-Vtn VDD -Vtn
VDD-Vtn VDD-Vtn

VDD
Vs = |Vtp| VDD-Vtn
VDD VDD -2Vtn
VSS

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 30

 Transmission Gate
 By combining behavior of the NMOS and PMOS, we
can construct a transmission gate
 The transmission gate can transmit both logic one and logic
zero without degradation
-S

Vin Vout
Cload
S

 The transmission gate is a fundamental and ubiquitous

component in MOS logic
 A multiplexer element
 A logic structure,
 A latch element, etc.

Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 31

 Summary
 Threshold drops
 Pass transistors suffer a threshold drop when passing the
wrong value: NMOS transistors only pull up to VDD-Vtn, while
PMOS transistors only pull down to |Vtp|
 The magnitude of the threshold drop is increased by the
body effect
 Fully complementary transmission gates should be used
where both 0’s and 1’s must be passed well
 VDD
 Velocity saturation and mobility degradation result in less
current than expected at high voltage
 This means that there is no point in trying to use a high VDD
to achieve high fast transistors, so VDD has been decreasing
with process generation to reduce power consumption
 Moreover, the very short channels and thin gate oxide would
be damaged by high VDD
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 32
 Summary
 Leakage current
 Real gates draw some leakage current
 The most important source at this time is subthreshold leakage
between source and drain of a transistor that should be cut off
 The subthreshold current of a OFF transistor decreases by an
order of magnitude for every 60-100mV that Vgs is below Vt.
Threshold voltages have been decreasing, so subthreshold
leakage has been increasing dramatically
 Some processes offer multiple choices of Vt; low-Vt devices are
used for high performance, while high-Vt devices are used for
low leakage elsewhere
 Leakage current causes CMOS gates to consume power when idle.
It also limits the amount of time that data is retained in
dynamic logic, latches, and memory cells
 In modern processes, dynamic logic and latches require some
sort of feedback to prevent data loss from leakage
 Leakage increases at high temperature
Advanced Reliable Systems (ARES) Lab. Jin-Fu Li, EE, NCU 33