Difference Between CMOS and NMOS Technology

The most popular MOSFET technology (semiconductor technology) available today is the CMOS technology or complementary MOS technology. CMOS technology is the leading semiconductor technology for ASICs, memories, microprocessors. The main advantage of CMOS technology over BIPOLAR and NMOS technology is the power dissipation – when the circuit is switches then only the power dissipates. This allows to fit many CMOS gates on an integrated circuit than in Bipolar and NMOS technology. This article discusses about the difference between CMOS and NMOS technology.

The structure of the bipolar transistors has PNP or NPN. In these types of transistors, the small amount of current in the thicker base layer controls large currents between emitter and collector. Base currents limit the integration densityof the bipolar devices.

Metal oxide semiconductor is further classified into different technologies under PMOS, NMOS and CMOS. These devices include a semiconductor, oxide and a metal gate. Currently, Polysilicon is more commonly used as a gate. When the voltage is applied to the gate, then it controls the current between the source & drain. Since they consume less power and MOS allows higher integration.

BiCMOS Technology employs both CMOS and Bipolar transistors; these are integrated on the same semiconductor chip. CMOS technology offers high I/P and low O/P impedance, high packing density, symmetrical noise margins and low power dissipation. BiCMOS technology has made it possible to combine bipolar devices and CMOS transistors in a single process at a reasonable cost to attain the high-density integration of MOS logic.

CMOS Technology:

Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS technology) is used to construct ICs and this technology is used in digital logic circuits, microprocessors, microcontrollers and static RAM. CMOS technology is also used in several analog circuits like data converters, image sensors and in highly integrated transceivers. The main features of CMOS technology are low static power consumption and high noise immunity.

When the couple of transistors are in OFF condition, the combination of series draws significant power only during switching between ON & OFF states. So, MOS devices do not generate as much waste heat as other forms of logic. For example, TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) or MOS logic, which normally have some standing current even when not changing state. This allows a high density of logic functions on a chip. Due to this reason, this technologymost widely used and is implemented in VLSI chips.

Advantages of CMOS Technology

These devices are used in a range of applications with analog circuits like, image sensors, data converters, etc.The advantages of CMOS technology over NMOS are as follows.

• Very low static power consumption
• Reduce the complexity of the circuit
• High density of logic functions on a chip
• High noise immunity

Why CMOS Technology Is Preferred Over NMOS Technology

CMOS stands for Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor. On the other hand, NMOS is a metal oxide semiconductor MOS or MOSFET(metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor). These are two logic families, where CMOS uses both PMOS and MOS transistors for design and NMOS uses only FETs for design. CMOS is chosen over NMOS for embedded system design. Because, CMOS propagates both logic o and 1, whereas NMOS propagates only logic 1 that is VDD. The O/P after passing through one, the NMOS gate would be VDD-Vt. Therefore, CMOS technology is preferred.

 In CMOS logic gates, a set of n-type MOSFETs is positioned in a pull-down network between the low-voltage power supply rail and the output. Instead of the load resistor of NMOS logic gates, CMOS logic gates have a collection of P-type MOSFETs in a pull-up network between the high-voltage rail and the output. Therefore, if both transistors have their gates connected to the same input, the p-type MOSFET will be on when the n-type MOSFET is off, and vice-versa.

CMOS and NMOS both inspired by the growth in digital technologies, that are used to construct the integrate circuits. Both CMOS and NMOS are used in many digital logic circuits and functions, static RAM and microprocesors.These are used as data converters and image sensors for analog circuits, and also used in Trans-receptors for many modes of telephone communication. While both CMOS and NMOS have the same function as transistors for both analog and digital circuits, but many people still choose the CMOS technology to the latter for its many advantages.

 As compared to the NMOS, the CMOS technology is top in quality. Especially, when it comes to its features like low-static power utilization and noise resistance, CMOS technology conserves energy and it does not produce heat. Though costly, a lot of people prefer the CMOS technology due to its complex composition, that makes it hard for the black market to fabricate the technology used by the CMOS.

extract from : https://www.elprocus.com/difference-between-nmos-cmos-technology/