New spin control method brings billion-qubit quantum chips closer

Australian engineers have discovered a new way of precisely controlling single electrons nestled in quantum dots that run logic gates. What's more, the new mechanism is less bulky and requires fewer parts, which could prove ...

Chip-scale metamicroscope for high-performance imaging

The microscope effectively expands human eyesight to the microworld. It supports wide applications in scientific research, biomedical diagnosis, industry, and beyond. The ultimate goal is superresolution, yet along the way ...

Keeping the energy in the room

It may seem like technology advances year after year, as if by magic. But behind every incremental improvement and breakthrough revolution is a team of scientists and engineers hard at work.

Ultracompact metalens microscopy breaks FOV constraints

The pursuit of ever-higher imaging resolution in microscopy is coupled with growing demands for compact portability and high throughput. While imaging performance has improved, conventional microscopes still suffer from the ...

Harnessing photonics for at-home disease detection

In the not-too-distant future, people may have a simple device that monitors and reports health indicators, identifies even trace amounts of undesirable biomarkers in the blood or saliva and serves as an early warning system ...

page 1 from 10

CMOS

Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) ( /ˈsiːmɒs/) is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for several analog circuits such as image sensors (CMOS sensor), data converters, and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication. Frank Wanlass patented CMOS in 1967 (US patent 3,356,858).

CMOS is also sometimes referred to as complementary-symmetry metal–oxide–semiconductor (or COS-MOS). The words "complementary-symmetry" refer to the fact that the typical digital design style with CMOS uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) for logic functions.

Two important characteristics of CMOS devices are high noise immunity and low static power consumption. Significant power is only drawn when the transistors in the CMOS device are switching between on and off states. Consequently, CMOS devices do not produce as much waste heat as other forms of logic, for example transistor-transistor logic (TTL) or NMOS logic. CMOS also allows a high density of logic functions on a chip. It was primarily for this reason that CMOS became the most used technology to be implemented in VLSI chips.

The phrase "metal–oxide–semiconductor" is a reference to the physical structure of certain field-effect transistors, having a metal gate electrode placed on top of an oxide insulator, which in turn is on top of a semiconductor material. Aluminum was once used but now the material is polysilicon. Other metal gates have made a comeback with the advent of high-k dielectric materials in the CMOS process, as announced by IBM and Intel for the 45 nanometer node and beyond.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA