Transistor Characteristics

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Introduction
During transistor operation we use the gate voltage to modulate the current through the channel. An ideal transistor would act as a switch, but realistic transistors have more complex characteristics that we can be understand by looking at the structure of the transistor.

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Transistor structure
n-type transistor:

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Transistor structure (cont:)

Fig: shows the cross-section of an n-type MOS transistor. It is embedded in a p-type substrate. The area where the intersection of an n-type diffusion region and a polysilicon wire is called the channel. The channel connects the two n-type wires which form the source and drain, but is itself doped to be p-type. Having a thin oxide at the channel is critical to the successful operation of the transistor.
Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Transistor operation

Gate-to-source voltage modulates the amount of current that can flow between the source and drain. When the gate voltage (Vgs) is zero, no current can flow from the source to the drain. As Vgs rises above zero, current flows between the source and drain. While the channel region contains predominantly p-type carriers, it has also have some minority carriers. The positive voltage on the gate attracts the electrons, they collect at the top of the channel . At the critical voltage called the threshold voltage (Vt) , enough electrons have collected at the channel boundary to form an inversion layer, a layer of electrons dense enough to conduct current between the source and drain. The size of the channel region is labeled relative to the direction of current flow. The channel length (L) is along the direction of current flow between the source and drain, while the width (W) is perpendicular to current flow. The amount of current flow is a function of the W/L ratio. P-type transistors have identical structures but complementary materials.

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

P-type Device

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

N-type Device

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Transistor equations

The variables that describe a transistors behavior are: - Vgs : the gate-to-source voltage; - Vds : the drain-to-source voltage; - Id : the current flowing between the drain and source. The constants that determine the magnitude of source-to-drain current in the transistor are: - Vt : the transistor threshold voltage, which is positive for an ntype transistor and negative for a p-type transistor; - k : the transistor transconductance, which is positive for both types of transistors; -W/L : the width-to-length ratio of the transistor.

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

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Drain current

For an n-type transistor, we have: Linear region (Vds < Vgs - Vt): Id = k (W/L)(Vgs - Vt)(Vds - 0.5 Vds2) Saturation region (Vds >= Vgs - Vt): Id = 0.5k (W/L)(Vgs - Vt) 2 For a p-type transistor, the drain current is negative and the device is on Vgs is the below the devices negative threshold voltage.

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Fig: 2-4 Drain current characteristics

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR

Fig: 2-4 plots the equations over some typical values for an n-type device. Each curve shows the transistor current as Vgs is held constant and Vds is swept from 0V to a large voltage.

FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 2

Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR