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A Field Effect Transistor is a device with a single channel (conductor between two of the terminals). This channel is turned on an off by a voltage applied to the third terminal which is connected to the conducting channel in a J fet (junction Fet) or isolated from the channel in a Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) fet. To keep the explanation simple, an enhacement mode MOS FET pulls charge carriers (electrons for N channel and holes for P channel) into the channel so its resistance decreases. This turns it on. By removing this voltage, charge carries move out of the channel and the FET turns off. It can be turned on partially by putting a small voltage on the control terminal called the GATE. In an N channel FET, the charge carriers (electrons) move from the SOURCE terminal (-ve) to the DRAIN terminal (+ve) when the FET is on. The voltage on the GATE is applied with respect to the SOURCE. In a P channel enhancement mode FET, charge carriers (holes) are also pulled into the channel in the same way but because the charge carriers are holes, the SOURCE is the +ve terminal and the DRAIN is the negative. The holes referred to are gaps in the crystal lattice of a substance like silicon which is doped (impurities added) with aluminum which has only 3 electrons in the outer shell instead of 4 like silicon. In a depletion mode FET, everything is the same except in reverse. Charge carriers are pushed OUT of the conducting channel.

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13y ago

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