
Today with the vast number of technical achievements occurrin around the
world, many discoveries are overshadowed or obscured by some that may
appear more important to the eneral media. One such discovery of importance,
to the audiophile at least, is that of the power MOSFET device.
The MO FET
The field effect transistor (FET) and then the MOSFET transistor have been
around for a number of years, but only as a small si nal-
employed in radio tuners and communicati
ons equipment. The electrical
advanta es of these have lon been realised by manufacturers of hi-
they could be made to handle lar e amounts of power –
audiophile.
The term power MOSFET describes a device capable of handl
lar e amounts of electrical ener y as an amplifier itself –
MOSFET stands for “Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistor”, this in turn
means that the device is constructed of Silicon. Similar to a transistor –
that controls the power flow throu h the device is insulated from the
remainder of the device by a metal oxide insulatin layer and the controllin of
the power is achieved by the development of an electrostatic field between the
controllin element and the conductin element.
In a transistor, the control of the power throu h the device is effected by the
application of a smaller, but nevertheless, si nificant amount of power to the
controllin element. Whereas in the power MOSFET, the control of the power
throu h the device is affected by the application of a very small and very
insi nificant amount of power to the controllin element –
amount required to create a small electrostatic field. This makes the operation of
a power MOSFET similar to that of a valve.
Other Field
Effect
Devices
There are basically three types of power field effect device, they are: the
junction FET, the vertical FET and the power MOSFET, all of which were
independently developed by three different hi-fi equipmen
Japan and all were major technolo ical breakthrou hs in their own ri ht.
The first of these was the junction FET, the second the vertical FET and lastly,
the power MOSFET. Althou h all these devices are vast improvements over
sistors, the junction FET and vertical FET cannot compare with the
power MOSFET, in terms of simplicity of the supportin driver sta es and
power supply requirements.
The power MOSFET, thou h havin similar characteristics to the valve, can be
divided into 2 types of polarities of device – P-
channel. Broadly speakin only one of these types exists in valve operations.
This means that complementary power MOSFETs – P and N channel –
used in an audio output sta e providin reater linea
rity of operation than can be
achieved with valves. In addition, further advanta es over the valve include
their much smaller size, no filaments and reater reliability with reduced
vulnerability to physical dama e.
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