LEAKAGE CURRENT MOSFET

Leakage Current in Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect

Transistor MOSFET

Imam Wijaya
1
, Dibya Adhiguna
1
, Abdul Rozaq
1
, Wahyu Dwi N
1
,M Salman A
1
,
Rio Martha
1
, Widya Meiriska
1
, Dami Pratiwi
1
1
Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Departmen of Physic
Jalan Ganesha no.10, Bandung, CA, Indonesia
e-mail address: robiah.wijaya239@gmail.com

MOSFET Field effect transistor is a unipolar- transistor, which acts as a voltage-controlled current device and is a device in
which current at two electrodes drain and source is controlled by the action of an electric field at another electrode gate
having in-between semiconductor and metal very a thin metal oxide layer. Leakage is a quantum phenomenon where
mobile charge carriers (electrons or hole) tunnel through an insulating region. Leakage increases exponentially as the
thickness of the insulating region decreases. Measuring leakage currents at terminal D and S can be done with a voltage
meter on the output of the fourth toe G and S, providing output current at the terminal of the S and D, as well as power
supplay and LED on terminal S and D. LED function to detect current leakage occurs. Leakage current will be measured in
terminal in the form of graphs I-V relationship between IDD and Vth. From that graph we can analysis cause of the leakage
current.
Keywords: Leakage current, MOSFET, Semiconductors

INTRODUCTION
The Purpose this experiment is to detect leakage
currents that occur in mosfet and to determine
factors associated with the leakage current . The
theory associated with these experiments will be
described as follows.
MOSFET Field effect transistor is a unipolar-
transistor, which acts as a voltage-controlled current
device and is a device in which current at two
electrodes drain and source is controlled by the
action of an electric field at another electrode gate
having in-between semiconductor and metal very a
thin metal oxide layer. There are two kinds of
MOSFET, based on the contain of the channel. The
channel can contain electrons (called an nMOSFET or
nMOS), or holes (called a pMOSFET or pMOS),
opposite in type to the substrate, so nMOS is made
with a p-type substrate, and pMOS with an n-type
substrate.
For NPN type, when the gate is given by positive
electrons from the semiconductor N of the drain and
source were attracted by the gate to the P-type
semiconductor is in between. With the presence of
these electrons in semiconductors P, it will be a
bridge that allows the movement of electrons from
source to drain.




Figure 1. PNP type MOSFET work
For PNP type, the same principle except that
the voltage applied at the gate opposite MOSFET
NPN type. When a negative voltage is supplied to the
gate, holes from the P-type semiconductor source
and drain of interest to the N-type semiconductor.
This hole bridges with the electric current can flow
from source to drain.

Figure2. PNP type MOSFET work
Modes of operation
The operation of a MOSFET can be separated into
three different modes, depending on the voltages at
LEAKAGE CURRENT MOSFET
the terminals. In the following discussion, a simplified
algebraic model is used.
[1]
Modern MOSFET
characteristics are more complex than the algebraic
model presented here. For an enhancement-model,
n-chenel mosfet the three operational modes are:

Cutoff, subthreshold, or weak-inversion mode

When V
GS
< V
th
:
where is gate-to-source bias and is the
threshold voltage of the device. According to the
basic threshold model, the transistor is turned off,
and there is no conduction between drain and
source. A more accurate model considers the effect
of thermal energy on the Boltzman distribution of
electron energies which allow some of the more
energetic electrons at the source to enter the
channel and flow to the drain. This results in a
subthreshold current that is an exponential function
of gatesource voltage. While the current between
drain and source should ideally be zero when the
transistor is being used as a turned-off switch, there
is a weak-inversion current, sometimes called
subthreshold leakage.
In weak inversion the current varies
exponentially with as given approximately by:
[2]

(1)
where = current at , the thermal
voltage and the slope factor n is given
by
(2)
with = capacitance of the depletion layer and
= capacitance of the oxide layer. In a long-
channel device, there is no drain voltage dependence
of the current once , but as channel
length is reduced drain induced barrier lowering
introduces drain voltage dependence that depends in
a complex way upon the device geometry (for
example, the channel doping, the junction doping
and so on). Frequently, threshold voltage V
th
for this
mode is defined as the gate voltage at which a
selected value of current I
D0
occurs, for example, I
D0
=
1 A, which may not be the same V
th
-value used in
the equations for the following modes.
Some micropower analog circuits are
designed to take advantage of subthreshold
conduction. By working in the weak-inversion region,
the MOSFETs in these circuits deliver the highest
possible transconductance-to-current ratio, namely:
almost that of a bipolar transistor.
The subthreshold I-V curve depends
exponentially upon threshold voltage, introducing a
strong dependence on any manufacturing variation
that affects threshold voltage; for example: variations
in oxide thickness, junction depth, or body doping
that change the degree of drain-induced barrier
lowering. The resulting sensitivity to fabricational
variations complicates optimization for leakage and
performance.

Triode mode or linear region (also known as
the ohmic mode)
When V
GS
> V
th
and V
DS
< ( V
GS
V
th
)
The transistor is turned on, and a channel has
been created which allows current to flow between
the drain and the source. The MOSFET operates like a
resistor, controlled by the gate voltage relative to
both the source and drain voltages. The current from
drain to source is modeled as:
(3)
where is the charge-carrier effective mobility,
is the gate width, is the gate length and is
the gate oxide capacitance per unit area. The
transition from the exponential subthreshold region
to the triode region is not as sharp as the equations
suggest.
Saturation or active mode
[3]
When V
GS
> V
th
and V
DS
( V
GS
V
th
)
The switch is turned on, and a channel has
been created, which allows current to flow between
the drain and source. Since the drain voltage is higher
than the gate voltage, the electrons spread out, and
conduction is not through a narrow channel but
through a broader, two- or three-dimensional current
distribution extending away from the interface and
deeper in the substrate. The onset of this region is
also known as pinch-off to indicate the lack of
channel region near the drain. The drain current is
now weakly dependent upon drain voltage and
controlled primarily by the gatesource voltage, and
modeled approximately as:
LEAKAGE CURRENT MOSFET
(4)
The additional factor involving , the channel-
length modulation parameter, models current
dependence on drain voltage due to the Early effect,
or channel length modulation. According to this
equation, a key design parameter, the MOSFET
transconductance is:
(5)
where the combination V
ov
= V
GS
V
th
is called the
overdrive voltage,
[4]
and where V
DSsat
= V
GS
V
th

(which Sedra neglects) accounts for a small
discontinuity in which would otherwise appear at
the transition between the triode and saturation
regions.

Figure 3. MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage for several values of

Leakage current
Leakage is a quantum phenomenon where mobile
charge carriers (electrons or hole) tunnel through an
insulating region. Leakage increases exponentially as
the thickness of the insulating region decreases. In a
MOSFET its happen between heavily doped p-type
and n-type . There are five major sources of leakage
currents in MOSFET, they are: Gate oxide tunnelling
leakage (I
G
), Subthreshold leakage (I
SUB
), Reverse-bias
junction leakages (I
REV
), Gate Induced Drain Leakage
(I
GIDL
), Gate current due to hot-carrier injection (I
H
).

METHOD
The equipment used to measure the leakage
current in the MOSFET we use I-V meter Lkafi 100,
power supply, n-type MOSFETs: HFS4N65, cables, and
LEDs. Measuring leakage currents at terminal D and S
can be done with a voltage meter on the output of
the fourth toe G and S, providing output current at
the terminal of the S and D, as well as power supplay
and LED on terminal S and D. LED function to detect
current leakage occurs. Leakage current will be
measured in terminal in the form of graphs I-V
relationship between IDD and Vth. Followed as the
figure 4.

Figure 4. Design of experiment

DATE AND MESURMENT


Figure 5. MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage( voltage source 2 volt ).
LEAKAGE CURRENT MOSFET

Figure 6. MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage (voltage source 2.5 volt)


Figure 7. MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage ( voltage source 3 volt)


Figure 8. MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage (voltage source3.5 v )


Figure9 . MOSFET drain current vs. drain-to-source
voltage (voltage source2, 2.5,3,3.5 volt )



Figure 10. Leakage current vs. voltage source


ANALYSIS
From the experiment , the value of leakage current
are, 1.9 x10
-5
A from the voltage 2 volt, 11x10
-5
A from
the voltage 2.5 volt, 1.8x10
-4
A from the voltage 3
volt, 3x10
-4
A from the voltage 3.5 volt as seen on
figure 5 till 8. The greater value of leakage current
increasing by increasing voltage(see figure 10) , its
caused by magnetic field consequent from the
voltage was given beside G and S. The magnetic field
increasing by increasing the voltage was given. By the
existence of magnetic field, make electrons flow from
S to D, so we can detect the leakage current.
As can be seen in the figure the source and drain
regions are identical 1. This is the applied voltage
determines the n-type region and provide a source of
electrons, while the other n-type region collects the
electrons and becomes useless. The voltage applied
to the drain and gate electrodes and substrate by
LEAKAGE CURRENT MOSFET
contact back which refers to the potential source, as
also shown in the figure.
The views over the same MOSFET is shown in Fig.1,
where the gate length, L, and the gate width, W, are
identified. Overlap between the gate and the source
and drain regions is necessary to ensure that the
inversion layer formed continuously path between
the source and drain regions. This usually overlap is
minimized in order to minimize the parasitic
capacitance. The flow of electrons from source to
drain is controlled by the voltage applied to the gate.
A positive voltage applied to the gate, exciting
electrons to the interface between the
semiconductor and the gate dielectric. The electrons
form a conducting channel between the source and
drain, which is called the inversion layer. There is no
gate current required to maintain the inversion layer
at the interface since the gate oxide blocks the flow
of the carrier. The end result is that the current
between the drain and source is controlled by the
voltage applied to the gate.
The leakage currents result in excessive power
consumption, can damage electronic components,
and impede device performance

CONCLUSIONS
The value of leakage current are, 1.9 x10
-5
A from
the voltage 2 volt, 11x10
-5
A from the voltage 2.5 volt,
1.8x10
-4
A from the voltage 3 volt, 3x10
-4
A from the
voltage 3.5 volt as seen on figure 5 till 8.
There are five major sources of leakage currents in
MOSFET, they are: Gate oxide tunnelling leakage (I
G
),
Subthreshold leakage (I
SUB
), Reverse-bias junction
leakages (I
REV
), Gate Induced Drain Leakage (I
GIDL
),
Gate current due to hot-carrier injection (I
H
).
The amount of leakage current is proportional to
the magnitude of the voltage that we give.

REFERENCES
[1] "Modeling and simulation of insulated-gate field-effect
transistor switching circuits". IEEE Journal of Solid-
state circuits SC3: 285289.
[2]P J Hurst, S H Lewis, and R G Meyer (2001). Analysis
and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits (Fourth Edition
ed.). New York: Wiley. pp. 6667
[3] A. S. Sedra and K.C. Smith (2004). Microelectronic
circuits (Fifth Edition ed.). New York: Oxford
).