CEE 468

Industrial Electronics
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 PART 5-2
The Power MOSFET
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MOSFET Regions of
Operation
 Most MOSFET devices used in power electronics
applications are of the n-channel, enhancement
type, like that shown in Fig. 6.6a.

 For the MOSFET to carry drain current, a channel

between the drain and the source must be
created.

 This occurs when the gate-to-source voltage

exceeds the device threshold voltage VTh.

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MOSFET Regions of
Operation
 For vGS > VTh, the device can be either in the
triode region, which is also called ‘‘constant
resistance’’ region, or in the saturation region,
depending on the value of vDS.

 For given vGS, with small vDS (vDS < vGS-VTh), the
device operates in the triode region (saturation
region in the BJT), and for larger vDS (vDS > vGS-
VTh), the device enters the saturation region
(active region in the BJT).

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MOSFET Regions of
Operation
 For vGS < VTh, the device turns off, with drain
current almost equal to zero.

 Under both regions of operation, the gate current

is almost zero. This is why the MOSFET is known
as a voltage-driven device and, therefore,
requires simple gate control circuit.

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The Power MOSFET
 In terms of vDS:

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The Power MOSFET
 It can be shown that drain current iD can be mathematically
approximated as follows:

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The Power MOSFET
 The large signal equivalent circuit model for an n-channel
enhancement-type MOSFET operating in the saturation
mode is shown in Fig. 6.11. The drain current is
represented by a current source as the function of V TH and
vGS.

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The Power MOSFET
 If after the channel is pinched-off, we assume that the
drain source current will no longer be constant but rather
depends on the value of vDS as shown in Fig. 6.12, then the
increased value of vDS cause a reduced channel length,
resulting in a phenomenon known as channel-length
modulation [3, 4].

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The Power MOSFET
 Here iD is given by

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The Power MOSFET

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MOSFET Switching
Characteristics

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MOSFET Switching
Characteristics

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MOSFET Switching
Characteristics

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Turn-On Characteristics
 In power electronics applications, power MOSFET are
operated at high frequencies in order to reduce the size of
the magnetic components.

 In order to reduce the switching losses, power MOSFET are

maintained in either the on-state (conduction state) or the
off-state (forward-blocking) state.

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Turn-On Characteristics
 To investigate the on- and off-switching characteristics, we
consider the simple power electronic circuit shown in Fig.
6.17a under inductive load. The flyback diode D is used to
pick up the load current when the switch is off.

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Turn-On Characteristics
 To simplify the analysis we will assume the load inductance
is a large enough L0 that the current through it is constant
as shown in Fig. 6.17b.

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Turn-On Characteristics

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Turn-On Characteristics

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Turn-On Characteristics

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Turn-On Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics
 From the input transfer characteristics, the value of vGS, at which ID= I0, is
given by

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Turn-off Characteristics

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Safe Operation Area
 The safe operation area (SOA) of a device provides the
current and voltage limits the device must be able to
handle to avoid destructive failure. Typical SOA for a
MOSFET device is shown in Fig. 6.23.

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Safe Operation Area
 The maximum current limit while the device is on is
determined by the maximum power dissipation.

 The second breakdown occurs when the MOSFET is in the

blocking state (off) and a further increase in v DS will cause
a sudden drop in the blocking voltage.

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