Field-effect transistor

A transistor in which an electric field controls current through a semiconductor channel between source and drain terminals. Its insulated-gate and junction-gate forms use different structures to control that channel.

MOSFET: A field-effect transistor whose gate is separated from its semiconductor channel by an insulating layer. Its insulated gate makes it the dominant switching device in modern integrated circuits.
Source and drain: The two terminals through which current enters and leaves a field-effect transistor's channel. They define the ends of the controlled current path.
Digital logic: The design of circuits that process information using discrete logical states. MOSFETs implement the switching networks underlying digital logic.
Bipolar junction transistor: A transistor in which current through a semiconductor is controlled by injecting charge carriers through a base terminal. Unlike a field-effect transistor, it is controlled primarily by base current rather than an electric field.
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld: An inventor who patented early field-effect transistor designs in the 1920s. His patents anticipated transistor action controlled by an electric field.
Junction-gate field-effect transistor: A field-effect transistor whose gate forms a reverse-biased p–n junction with its channel. It controls channel width without the insulated gate used by MOSFETs.
Gate (electronics): A transistor terminal that controls conduction in a channel by applying voltage or current. Its voltage establishes the electric field that modulates the channel.
CMOS: A circuit technology that combines complementary n-channel and p-channel MOSFETs. CMOS logic uses paired transistors to reduce static power consumption.
Vacuum-tube transistor analogy: An electronic device that controls current through a vacuum using electrodes and electric fields. Its field-controlled current flow resembles FET operation, but it uses no semiconductor channel.
Oskar Heil: A physicist who patented a field-effect transistor concept in 1934. His patent described gate-controlled current in a semiconductor device.

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