Importance[edit]

The MOSFET forms the basis of modern electronics,[41] and is the basic element in most
modern electronic equipment.[42] It is the most common transistor in electronics,[13] and the
most widely used semiconductor device in the world.[43] It has been described as the
"workhorse of the electronics industry"[44] and "the base technology" of the late 20th to early
21st centuries.[10] MOSFET scaling and miniaturization (see List of semiconductor scale
examples) have been the primary factors behind the rapid exponential growth of
electronic semiconductor technology since the 1960s,[45] as the rapid miniaturization of
MOSFETs has been largely responsible for the increasing transistor density, increasing
performance and decreasing power consumption of integrated circuit chips and electronic
devices since the 1960s.[46]
MOSFETs are capable of high scalability (Moore's law and Dennard scaling),[47] with
increasing miniaturization,[48] and can be easily scaled down to smaller dimensions. [49] They
consume significantly less power, and allow much higher density, than bipolar transistors.
[50]
 MOSFETs thus have much smaller size than BJTs,[51] about 20 times smaller by the early
1990s.[51] MOSFETs also have faster switching speed,[4] with rapid on–off electronic
switching that makes them ideal for generating pulse trains,[52] the basis for digital signals.[53]
[54]
 in contrast to BJTs which more slowly generate analog signals resembling sine waves.
[52]
 MOSFETs are also cheaper[55] and have relatively simple processing steps, resulting in
high manufacturing yield.[49] MOSFETs thus enable large-scale integration (LSI), and are
ideal for digital circuits,[56] as well as linear analog circuits.[52]
The MOSFET has been variously described as the most important transistor,[3] the most
important device in the electronics industry,[57] arguably the most important device in
the computing industry,[58] one of the most important developments
in semiconductor technology,[59] and possibly the most important invention in electronics.
[60]
 The MOSFET has been the fundamental building block of modern digital electronics,
[10]
 during the digital revolution,[61] information revolution, information age,[62] and silicon age.[63]
[64]
 MOSFETs have been the driving force behind the computer revolution, and the
technologies enabled by it.[65][66][67] The rapid progress of the electronics industry during the late
20th to early 21st centuries was achieved by rapid MOSFET scaling (Dennard
scaling and Moore's law), down to the level of nanoelectronics in the early 21st century.
[68]
 The MOSFET revolutionized the world during the information age, with its high density
enabling a computer to exist on a few small IC chips rather than filling a room, [69] and later
making possible digital communications technology such as smartphones.[65]
The MOSFET is the most widely manufactured device in history.[70][71] The MOSFET
generates annual sales of $295 billion as of 2015.[72] Between 1960 and 2018, an estimated
total of 13 sextillion MOS transistors have been manufactured, accounting for at least 99.9%
of all transistors.[70] Digital integrated circuits such as microprocessors and memory
devices contain thousands to billions of integrated MOSFETs on each device, providing the
basic switching functions required to implement logic gates and data storage. There are also
memory devices which contain at least a trillion MOS transistors, such as a
256 GB microSD memory card, larger than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.[44] As
of 2010, the operating principles of modern MOSFETs have remained largely the same as
the original MOSFET first demonstrated by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng in 1960.[73][74]
The US Patent and Trademark Office calls the MOSFET a "groundbreaking invention that
transformed life and culture around the world"[65] and the Computer History Museum credits it
with "irrevocably changing the human experience." [10] The MOSFET was also the basis
for Nobel Prize winning breakthroughs such as the quantum Hall effect[75] and the charge-
coupled device (CCD),[76] though there was never any Nobel Prize given for the MOSFET
itself.[77] In a 2018 note on Jack Kilby's Nobel Prize for Physics for his part in the invention of
the integrated circuit, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences specifically mentioned the
MOSFET and the microprocessor as other important inventions in the evolution
of microelectronics.[78] The MOSFET is also included on the list of IEEE milestones in
electronics,[79] and its inventors Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng entered the National
Inventors Hall of Fame in 2009.[13][14]

Composition[edit]

Photomicrograph of two metal-gate MOSFETs in a test pattern. Probe pads for two gates and three
source/drain nodes are labeled.

Usually the semiconductor of choice is silicon. Recently, some chip manufacturers, most

notably IBM and Intel, have started using a chemical compound of silicon and germanium
(SiGe) in MOSFET channels. Unfortunately, many semiconductors with better electrical
properties than silicon, such as gallium arsenide, do not form good semiconductor-to-
insulator interfaces, and thus are not suitable for MOSFETs. Research continues [when?] on
creating insulators with acceptable electrical characteristics on other semiconductor
materials.
To overcome the increase in power consumption due to gate current leakage, a high-κ
dielectric is used instead of silicon dioxide for the gate insulator, while polysilicon is replaced
by metal gates (e.g. Intel, 2009[80]).
The gate is separated from the channel by a thin insulating layer, traditionally of silicon
dioxide and later of silicon oxynitride. Some companies have started to introduce a high-κ
dielectric and metal gate combination in the 45 nanometer node.
When a voltage is applied between the gate and body terminals, the electric field generated
penetrates through the oxide and creates an inversion layer or channel at the
semiconductor-insulator interface. The inversion layer provides a channel through which
current can pass between source and drain terminals. Varying the voltage between the gate
and body modulates the conductivity of this layer and thereby controls the current flow
between drain and source. This is known as enhancement mode.

Operation[edit]
Metal–oxide–semiconductor structure on p-type silicon

Metal–oxide–semiconductor structure[edit]
The traditional metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structure is obtained by growing a layer
of silicon dioxide (SiO
2) on top of a silicon substrate, commonly by thermal oxidation and depositing a layer of

metal or polycrystalline silicon (the latter is commonly used). As the silicon dioxide is

a dielectric material, its structure is equivalent to a planar capacitor, with one of the
electrodes replaced by a semiconductor.
When a voltage is applied across a MOS structure, it modifies the distribution of charges in
the semiconductor. If we consider a p-type semiconductor (with  the density
of acceptors, p the density of holes; p = NA in neutral bulk), a positive voltage, , from gate to
body (see figure) creates a depletion layer by forcing the positively charged holes away from
the gate-insulator/semiconductor interface, leaving exposed a carrier-free region of
immobile, negatively charged acceptor ions (see doping (semiconductor)). If  is high enough,
a high concentration of negative charge carriers forms in an inversion layer located in a thin
layer next to the interface between the semiconductor and the insulator.