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| The metal-oxide semiconductor FET, or MOSFET, has a source, gate,
and drain. The MOSFET differs from the JFET, however, in that the gate
is insulated from the channel. Because of this, the gate current is even
smaller than it is in a JFET. The MOSFET is sometimes called an IGFET,
which stands for insulated-gate FET. There are two kinds of MOSFETs, the depletion-mode type and the enhancement-mode type. The enhancement-mode MOSFET is widely used in both discrete and integrated circuits. In discrete circuits, the main use is in power switching, which means turning large currents on and off. In integrated circuits, the main use is in digital switching, the basic process behind modern computers. Although their use has declined, depletion-mode MOSFETs are still found in high-frequency front-end communications circuits as RF amplifiers. |