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5: Field Effect Transistors

  • Page ID
    44692
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    Field Effect transistors (FETs) are the backbone of the electronics industry. The remarkable progress of electronics over the last few decades is due in large part to advances in FET technology, especially their miniaturization, which has improved speed, decreased power consumption and enabled the fabrication of more complex circuits. In this section we will first look at the simplest FETs: molecular field effect transistors. We will use these devices to explain field effect switching. Then, we will consider ballistic quantum wire FETs, ballistic quantum well FETs and ultimately non-ballistic macroscopic FETs.

    Thumbnail: A molecular FET. An insulator separates the gate from the molecule. The gate is not designed to inject charge. Rather it influences the molecule's potential.


    This page titled 5: Field Effect Transistors is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Marc Baldo (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.