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Q&A Why are there more N type than P type MOSFETs?

There are two predominant reasons you see N channel FETs more than P channel: N channel is the natural polarity for ground-referenced switches controlling loads with positive voltages. This is co...

posted 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Olin Lathrop‭ · 2022-02-11T13:50:03Z (over 2 years ago)
There are two predominant reasons you see N channel FETs more than P channel:<ol>

<li>N channel is the natural polarity for ground-referenced switches controlling loads with positive voltages.  This is convenient because most controlling circuitry is ground-referenced too, with positive supply.

With the FET source grounded, the drain tied to the negative side of the load, the gate voltage swings from 0 to whatever value turns on the FET sufficiently.  This is the same voltage range where the controller and other signals already are.

One drawback with FETs, particularly if they have to control high voltage or high current, is that the gate needs to be as high as 12 V to turn on the FET.  That can be inconvenient, but is still usually better than what a P channel FET requires.  For small enough voltage and current, there are "logic level" FETs that can be driven from normal logic voltages directly.  There are also gate driver chips to simplify driving a 0-12 V gate signal from a 0-3.3 V logic signal.

<li>N channel FETs usually have better switching characteristics for otherwise the same parameters.  This is because holes are more sluggish than electrons.  N-type material works on conduction of electrons, and P-type material on conduction of holes.

</ol>

That all said, P channel FETs are not something to shy away from when the right requirements arise.  Sometimes the low side of a load must stay grounded, and you need to switch the high side.  I usually do use P channel FETs in such cases.  The gate voltage only needs to swing from the supply to about 12 V below the supply.  An N channel FET would require gate voltage swing from 0 to 12 V above the supply to do the same thing.  The extra voltage above the supply is inconvenient, and the larger voltage swing requires higher dV/dt for the same result.  That is not only harder to achieve, but will cause more radiation.