title: Wayne Brady

text: Brady has been married twice. He married Diana Lasso on December 31, 1993. They divorced on September 21, 1995. On April 3, 1999, he married dancer Mandie Taketa. He and Taketa have one child, a daughter named Maile Masako Brady, born on February 3, 2003. Brady and Taketa separated on April 5, 2006, and Taketa filed for divorce on July 2, 2007.


title: Wayne Brady

text: In 2007, Brady became an official supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and is a member of their celebrity board, the Friends of RMHC.


title: Wayne Brady

text: In 2013, Bill Maher compared Brady to President Barack Obama, in that, in popular culture, they were both supposedly "not black enough". Brady took issue with this statement, suggesting that Maher should "be careful when [he makes] statements like that" because it will allow his viewers to make the same stereotypical assumptions about black people.


title: Wayne Brady

text: Brady has suffered from clinical depression. On his 42nd birthday, in 2014, he had a mental breakdown and later credited Taketa for helping him recover.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source. A color of green, yellow or red summarizes the critics' recommendations. It is regarded as the foremost online review aggregation site for the video game industry.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic's scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, or what the site decides subjectively from a qualitative review. Before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to a critic's popularity, stature, and volume of reviews. The website won two Webby Awards for excellence as an aggregation website. Criticism of the site has focused on the assessment system, the assignment of scores to reviews that do not include ratings, third-party attempts to influence the scores, and lack of staff oversight for user reviews.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic was launched in January 2001 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, and a classmate from the University of Southern California law school, Jason Dietz, after two years of developing the site. Rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005. CNET and Metacritic were later acquired by the CBS Corporation. In 2020, Metacritic and other CNET titles were bought by Red Ventures. In 2022, Red Ventures sold Metacritic and other entertainment websites to Fandom Inc.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic has been used by businesses to predict future sales. In 2007, Nick Wingfield of "The Wall Street Journal" wrote that Metacritic "influence[s] the sales of games and the stocks of video game publishers". He explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores "can hurt the long-term sales potential". Wingfield wrote that Wall Street pays attention to Metacritic and GameRankings because the sites typically post scores before sales data are publicly available, citing the respective rapid rise and fall in company values after "BioShock" and "Spider-Man 3" were released. In an interview with "The Guardian", Marc Doyle cited two major publishers that "conducted comprehensive statistical surveys through which they've been able to draw a correlation between high metascores and stronger sales" in certain genres. He claimed that an increasing number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as "an early indicator of a game's potential sales and, by extension, the publisher's stock price". However, a 2015 study analyzing over 88 Xbox 360 and 80 PS3 games from 2012 found that Metacritic scores did not impact actual sales.


title: Metacritic

text: Controversially, the website has been used by game publishers as a means of determining whether a game's developer receives additional royalties. One notable example is the 2010 game "," which received an average Metascore of 84 that fell one short of the 85 points required by Bethesda, the game's publisher. As a result, its developer, Obsidian Entertainment, received no additional bonus. Columnists took issue with the company's use of Metacritic, with one suggesting that this makes game critics ultimately accountable for deciding the developer's profits and another pointing out that a Metascore of 84 is not significantly lower than 85. The latter also pointed out the impressive sales of five million sold units and US$300 million in revenue, and also noted a series of Obsidian's layoffs in 2011 and 2012.


title: Metacritic

text: The website has also been used by columnists and commentators as a general reference for critical reception, and by publishers as a tool of improving their products. Along with other executives, in 2008, John Riccitiello, then CEO of Electronic Arts, showed Wall Street analysts a chart illustrating a downward trend in the average critical ratings of the company's games. He took the ratings seriously and stressed the need for the company to bounce back. Also in 2008, Microsoft used Metacritic averages to delist underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games.


title: Metacritic

text: Scores are weighted averages. Certain publications are given more significance "because of their stature". Metacritic has said that it will not reveal the relative weight assigned to each reviewer.


title: Metacritic

text: Games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed in 2008 by Keith Stuart of "The Guardian" to "get a look behind the metascoring process". Stuart wrote: "The Metascore phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years". Doyle said that because video games lead to a greater investment of time and money, gamers are more informed about reviews than are fans of film or music; they want to know "whether that hotly anticipated title is going to deliver".


title: Metacritic

text: In June 2018, Metacritic established the "Must-See" label for a movie that "achieves a Metascore of 81 or higher and has been reviewed by a minimum of 15 professional critics". In September 2018, it added the "Must-Play" certification for video games attaining a score of 90% or more, and a minimum number of 15 reviews from industry professionals.


title: Metacritic

text: The standalone highest-rated game of all time on the site is "", with a 99. The three games with a 98 are "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2", "Grand Theft Auto IV", and "Soulcalibur." There are about two dozen 97-rated games with standouts including "Red Dead Redemption 2" and "Grand Theft Auto V." There are nine movies that have received a 100: "The Godfather"; "Citizen Kane"; "Rear Window"; "Casablanca"; "Boyhood"; ; "Vertigo"; "Fanny and Alexander"; and "Notorious". There are five TV Show Seasons that have received a 99, including Season 4 of "Rectify", Season 4 and Season 6 of "The Larry Sanders Show", of "Murder One", and Season 5 of "Breaking Bad". The standalone highest-rated album of all time on the site is "Ten Freedom Summers" by American trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith, with a 99.


title: Metacritic

text: On the other hand, the standalone lowest-rated game of all time is "", with an 8. There are eleven movies that have received a 1, including "Bio-Dome", "10 Rules for Sleeping Around", "Chaos", "inAPPropriate Comedy", "Not Cool", "The Singing Forest", "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie", "Death of a Nation", "Hardbodies, Mother's Day" and "United Passions". The standalone lowest-rated TV show of all time is "The 1/2 Hour News Hour", with a 13. The standalone lowest-rated album of all time is "Playing with Fire" by Kevin Federline, with a 15.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic received mixed reviews from website critics, commentators, and columnists alike. Its efficacy has been analyzed, with conclusions finding it to be generally useful or unreliable and biased. The website won two annual Webby Awards for excellence in the "Guides/Ratings/Reviews" category, in 2010 and 2015.


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic has been criticized for converting all scoring systems into a single quantitative percentage-based scale. For example, an "A" score equates to the value of 100, an "F" the value of zero, and a "B−" the value of 67. Joe Dodson, former editor at Game Revolution, criticized Metacritic and similar sites for turning reviews into scores that he found to be too low. Doyle defended the grading system, believing that every scale should be converted directly to that of the website, with its lowest possible score being 0 and the highest 100. Further criticism was directed to the website's refusal to publicize how it aggregates scores.


title: Metacritic

text: According to Doyle, publishers often try to persuade him to exclude reviews they feel are unfair, but he said that once a publication is included, he refuses to omit any of its reviews. A "Washington Post" review of "Uncharted 4" was assigned with a rating of 40/100 by Metacritic; this was the only negative review of the game. Readers who disapproved of the review petitioned Metacritic to remove the "Post" as a trusted source. As a result of its perceived negative influence on the industry, several reviewing sites, including "Kotaku" and "Eurogamer", have dropped numerical reviews that would appear in Metacritic, instead favoring a qualitative assessment of a game. "Kotaku" also highlighted a practice alleged to be used by some publishers who use Metacritic scores as a way to leverage more favorable terms for the publisher or deny developers bonuses should they not reach a certain score. Doyle countered this by saying "Metacritic has absolutely nothing to do with how the industry uses our numbers... Metacritic has always been about educating the gamer. We're using product reviews as a tool to help them make the most of their time and money."


title: Metacritic

text: Metacritic has also been criticized for how it handles banning users and their reviews, with no notice or formal process for appeal. Critics and developers have pointed out that a product can suffer from rating manipulation by users, as by garnering low ratings that purposely damage its reputation or by receiving high ratings from throwaway accounts to make it appear more popular than it actually is. Signal Studios president and creative director Douglas Albright described the website as having no standards. In July 2020, Metacritic added a 36-hour waiting period for user reviews to be posted for video games at launch in an effort to reduce user score review-bombing during that period by users that haven't or barely played the game during a period when most players haven't finished the game.


title: Metacritic

text: Some have noted that Metacritic scores for modern video games may not be accurately reflective of a game's state in the future due to post release updates and patches as well as most press reviews of games taking place around its launch. For example, the metascore for MediEvil (2019) was mixed mainly due to performance issues around the time of the games launch. However these issues were later fixed in post-release patches that make the game run smoothly which would have led to a higher metascore in its current state. Another example is online games such as Final Fantasy XIV Online and Warframe which received mixed scores initially but later became more well received following improvements made after launch.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state ("Land") in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a total area of nearly , it is the third-largest German state by both area (behind Bavaria and Lower Saxony) and population (behind North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria). As a federated state, Baden-Württemberg is a partly-sovereign parliamentary republic. The largest city in Baden-Württemberg is the state capital of Stuttgart, followed by Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Other major cities are Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Pforzheim, Reutlingen, Tübingen, and Ulm.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: What is now Baden-Württemberg was formerly the historical territories of Baden, Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg. Baden-Württemberg became a state of West Germany in April 1952 by the merger of Württemberg-Baden, South Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. These states had just been artificially created by the Allies after World War II out of the existing traditional states Baden and Württemberg by their separation over different occupation zones.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is especially known for its strong economy with various industries like car manufacturing, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, the service sector, and more. It has the third-highest gross regional product (GRP) in Germany. Part of the Four Motors for Europe, some of the largest German companies are headquartered in Baden-Württemberg, including Mercedes-Benz Group, Schwarz Group, Porsche, Bosch and SAP.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The sobriquet "Ländle" (a diminutive of the word "Land" in the local Swabian, Alemannic and Franconian dialects) is sometimes used as a synonym for Baden-Württemberg.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is formed from the historical territories of Baden, Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: In 100 AD, the Roman Empire invaded and occupied Württemberg, constructing a limes (fortified boundary zone) along its northern borders. Over the course of the third century AD, the Alemanni forced the Romans to retreat west beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers. In 496 AD the Alemanni were defeated by a Frankish invasion led by Clovis I.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The Holy Roman Empire was later established. The majority of people in this region continued to be Roman Catholics, even after the Protestant Reformation influenced populations in northern Germany.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: In the late 18th and early 19th century, Künzelsau, the capital of the Hohenlohe (district), became the centre of emigration to the UK of pork butchers and bacon factors. The pioneers noticed a niche for speciality pork products in the rapidly growing English cities, especially those in the industrial centre and North. Many married local women and sent word home that a good living could be made in England; others followed.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous people emigrated from this primarily rural area to the United States for economic reasons.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: After World War II, the Allies established three states in the territory of modern-day Baden-Württemberg: Württemberg-Hohenzollern, Baden, and Württemberg-Baden. Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were occupied by France, while Württemberg-Baden was occupied by the United States. In 1949, each state became a founding member of the Federal Republic of Germany, with Article 118 of the German constitution providing an accession procedure. On 9 December 1951, Württemberg-Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Baden voted via a referendum in favor of a joint merger. Baden-Württemberg officially became a state in West Germany on 25 April 1952.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: There were still opponents to the merger of Baden and Württemberg, however. In 1956 the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the population of Baden should have their say in a separate referendum. The second referendum was delayed, however, and yet again, the Federal Constitutional Court decided in 1969 that another referendum should be held by 30 June 1970. The referendum was finally held on 7 June 1970, with 81.9% of the voters voting in favour of the merger of Baden and Württemberg.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg shares borders with the German states of Rhineland Palatinate, Hesse, and Bavaria, and also shares borders with France (region of Grand Est), and Switzerland (cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Aargau, Zürich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau).


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Most of the major cities of Baden-Württemberg straddle the banks of the Neckar River, which runs downstream (from southwest to the centre, then northwest) through the state past Tübingen, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Heidelberg, and Mannheim.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The Rhine () forms the western border as well as large portions of the southern border. The Black Forest (Schwarzwald), the central mountain range of the state, rises east of the Upper Rhine valley. The high plateau of the Swabian Alb, between the Neckar, the Black Forest, and the Danube, is an essential European watershed. Baden-Württemberg shares Lake Constance (Bodensee, also known regionally as the Swabian Sea) with Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria, the international borders within its waters not being clearly defined. It shares the foothills of the Alps (known as the Allgäu) with Bavaria and the Austrian Vorarlberg, but Baden-Württemberg itself has no mainland border with Austria.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The Danube is conventionally taken to be formed by the confluence of the two streams Brigach and Breg just east of Donaueschingen.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The source of the Donaubach, which flows into the Danube, in Donaueschingen is often referred to as the "source of the Danube" ("Donauquelle"). Hydrologically, the source of the Danube is the source of the Breg as the larger of the two formative streams, which rises near Furtwangen.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is- along with Bavaria- the southernmost part of Germany. Regardlessly, its climate is not as warm in every part as one would think.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: This is mostly due to a high amount of mountains and highlands inside of the state. Most parts in the western parts lower than 500-800 meters (1640-2625ft) enjoy an almost year round warm, in the Upper Rhine Valley and Bodensee area even a subtropical climate, influenced frequently by air masses from the Mediterranean Sea. Summers here are mostly dry, winters wet and foggy.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The highlands and also some lower parts in the eastern side of the state, do have more temperate temperatures, especially in summer. While winters in the warmest areas is often not having any snow, the Black Forest, Swabian Alb and the Alps tend to get snow frequently, especially in very high parts. Summers here have more rain than in the valleys, but winters tend to have more sun.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Due to the differences of the landscapes, average annual temperatures reach from only 5°C (41°F) in the microclimates of Black Forest and Allgäu up to 13°C (55°F) in the subtropical Upper Rhine Valley.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is divided into thirty-five districts (Landkreise) and nine independent cities (Stadtkreise), both grouped into the four Administrative Districts ("Regierungsbezirke") of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, and Tübingen.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The Baden-Württemberg General Auditing Office acts as an independent body to monitor public offices' correct use of public funds.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The politics of Baden-Württemberg have traditionally been dominated by the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), who until 2011 had led all but one government since the establishment of the state in April 1952. In the "Landtag" elections held on 27 March 2011, voters replaced the Christian Democrats and centre-right Free Democrats coalition by an alliance of the Greens and Social Democrats (initially led by the Social Democrats), which secured a four-seat majority in the state parliament and elected a Greens-led government because the Greens had surprisingly won 36 seats, one more than the Social Democrats' 35 seats. In 2016 the Greens, with their popular Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann was approved by the voters and, with their nationwide best result, won first place for the first time in German history. However, because of heavy losses for the Social Democrats, they had to form a grand coalition government with their adversaries from the Christian Democrats.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Although Baden-Württemberg has relatively few natural resources compared to other regions of Germany, the state is among the most prosperous and wealthiest regions in Europe with a generally low unemployment rate historically. The state's economic performance benefits from and relies on its well-developed infrastructure. Apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg offers the fourth-shortest routes to trains and buses on average among all German states.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg has the highest exports (2019) and third-highest imports (2020), the second-lowest unemployment rate with 4.3% (March 2021), the most patents pending per capita (2020), the second-highest absolute and highest relative number of companies considered "hidden champions", and the highest absolute and relative research and development expenditure (2017) among all states in Germany, as well as the highest measured Innovationsindex (2012), making it the German state with the third-highest gross regional product (GRP) (behind North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria) with €524,325 billion (around US$636.268 billion). Baden-Württemberg also has the most employees (233,296) in the automotive industry of all German states , as well as the third-highest number of motor vehicles of all German states (2020). If Baden-Württemberg were a sovereign country (2020), it would have an economy comparable to that of Sweden in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP).


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: A number of well-known enterprises are headquartered in the state, for example Mercedes-Benz Group, Porsche, Robert Bosch GmbH (automobile industry), Carl Zeiss AG (optics), SAP (Europe's most valuable brand as well as the largest non-American software enterprise) and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (precision mechanical engineering). Despite this, Baden-Württemberg's economy is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, like most companies in German-speaking countries are. Although poor in workable natural resources (formerly lead, zinc, iron, silver, copper, and salts) and still very rural in some areas, the region is heavily industrialised overall. In 2003, there were almost 8,800 manufacturing enterprises with more than 20 employees, but only 384 with more than 500. There are 3,779 companies in Baden-Württemberg corporate family which come to 1000-5000 employees in total.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The latter category accounts for 43% of the 1.2 million persons employed in the industry. The "Mittelstand" or mid-sized company model is the backbone of the Baden-Württemberg economy. Medium-sized businesses and a tradition of branching into different industrial sectors have ensured specialisation over a wide range. A fifth of the "old" Federal Republic's industrial gross value added is generated by Baden-Württemberg. Turnover for manufacturing in 2003 exceeded 240,000 million, 43% of which came from exports. The region depends to some extent on global economic developments, though the great adaptability of the region's economy has generally helped it through crises. Half of the employees in the manufacturing industry are in mechanical and electrical engineering and automobile construction. This is also where the largest enterprises are to be found. The importance of the precision mechanics industry also extends beyond the region's borders, as does that of the optical, clock making, toy, metallurgy and electronics industries. The textile industry, which formerly dominated much of the region, has disappeared from Baden-Württemberg. Research and development (R&D) is funded jointly by the state and industry. In 2001, more than a fifth of the 100,000 or so persons working in R&D in Germany were located in Baden-Württemberg, most of them in the Stuttgart area. Baden-Württemberg is also the region with the highest GDP of the Four Motors for Europe.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: A study performed in 2007 by the PR campaign "Initiative for New Social Market Economy" ( (INSM)) and the trade newspaper "Wirtschaftswoche" awarded Baden-Württemberg for being the "economically most successful and most dynamic state" among the 16 states.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The unemployment rate stood at 3% in October 2018 and was the second lowest in Germany behind only Bavaria and one of the lowest in the European Union.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is a popular holiday destination. Main sights include the capital and biggest city, Stuttgart, modern and historical at the same time, with its urban architecture and atmosphere (and famously, its inner-city parks and historic Wilhelma zoo), its castles (such as Castle Solitude), its (car and art) museums as well as a rich cultural programme (theatre, opera) and mineral spring baths in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt (also the site of a Roman Castra); it is the only major city in Germany with vineyards in an urban territory.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The residential (court) towns of Ludwigsburg and Karlsruhe, the spas and casino of luxurious Baden-Baden, the medieval architecture of Ulm (Ulm Münster is the tallest church in the world), the vibrant, young, but traditional university towns of Heidelberg and Tübingen with their old castles looking out above the river Neckar, are popular smaller towns. Sites of former monasteries such as the ones on Reichenau Island and at Maulbronn (both World Heritage Sites) as well as Bebenhausen Abbey are to be found. Baden-Württemberg also boasts rich old Free Imperial Cities such as Biberach, Esslingen am Neckar, Heilbronn, Ravensburg, Reutlingen, Künzelsau, Schwäbisch Hall and Aalen as well as the southernmost and sunniest city of Germany, Freiburg, close to Alsace and Switzerland, being an ideal base for exploring the heights of the nearby Black Forest (e.g., for skiing in winter or for hiking in summer) with its traditional villages and the surrounding wine country of the Rhine Valley of South Baden.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The countryside of the lush Upper Neckar valley (where Rottweil is famous for its carnival (Fastnacht)) and the pristine Danube valley Swabian Alb (with Hohenzollern Castle and Sigmaringen Castle), as well as the largely pristine Swabian Forest, the Upper Rhine Valley, and Lake Constance (), where all kinds of water sports are popular, with the former Imperial, today border town of Konstanz (where the Council of Constance took place), the Neolithic and Bronze Age village at Unteruhldingen, the flower island of Mainau, and the hometown of the Zeppelin, Friedrichshafen a.o., are especially popular for outdoor activities in the summer months.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: In spring and autumn (April/May and September/October), beer festivals (fun fairs) take place at the Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart. The Cannstatter Volksfest, in the autumn, is the second-largest such festival in the world after the Munich Oktoberfest. In late November and early December Christmas markets are a tourist magnet in all major towns, with the largest being in Stuttgart during the three weeks before Christmas.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The Bertha Benz Memorial Route is a 194 km signposted scenic route from Mannheim via Heidelberg and Wiesloch to Pforzheim and back, which follows the route of the world's first long-distance journey by automobile which Bertha Benz undertook in August 1888.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg also contains Europa-Park in Rust. The largest theme park in Germany, and the second most popular theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg is home to some of the oldest, most renowned, and prestigious universities in Germany, such as the universities of Heidelberg (founded in 1386, the oldest university within the territory of modern Germany), Freiburg (founded in 1457), and Tübingen (founded in 1477). It also contains three of the eleven German 'excellence universities' (Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Konstanz and formerly, Freiburg and Karlsruhe).


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Other university towns are Mannheim and Ulm. Furthermore, two universities are located in the state capital Stuttgart, the University of Hohenheim, and the University of Stuttgart. Ludwigsburg is home to the renowned national film school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg). The private International University in Germany was situated in Bruchsal, but closed in 2009. Another private university is located in Friedrichshafen, Zeppelin University.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Furthermore, there are more than a dozen Fachhochschulen, i.e., universities of applied sciences, as well as "Pädagogische Hochschulen", i.e., teacher training colleges, and other institutions of tertiary education in Baden-Württemberg. (a.o. in Aalen, Biberach an der Riss, Esslingen, Karlsruhe, Ludwigsburg, Nürtingen, Pforzheim, Ravensburg-Weingarten, Reutlingen, several in Stuttgart, Schwäbisch Hall). Pforzheim University is one of the oldest Fachhochschulen in Germany which is renowned and highly ranked for its Engineering and MBA programs.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The population of Baden-Württemberg was 10,486,660 in 2014, of which 5,354,105 were female and 5,132,555 male. In 2006, the birth rate of 8.61 per 1000 was almost equal to the death rate of 8.60 per 1000. 14.87 per cent of the population was under the age of 15, whereas the proportion of people aged 65 and older was at 18.99 per cent (2008). The dependency ratio–the ratio of people aged under 15 and over 64 in comparison to the working-age population (aged 15–64)–was 512 per 1000 (2008). In 2018, Baden-Württemberg ranked 2 on the Human Development Index (HDI) among all states in Germany, after Hamburg. With an average life expectancy of 79.8 years for men and 84.2 years for women (2017–2019 life table), Baden-Württemberg ranks first in this category among all states in Germany for both sexes.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Baden-Württemberg has long been a preferred destination of immigrants. , almost 28% of its population had a migration background as defined by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany; this number clearly surpassed the German average of 21% and was higher than in any other German state with the exception of the city states of Hamburg and Bremen. , 9,355,239 of the population held German citizenship, whereas 1,131,421 were foreign nationals.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Northern and most of central Württemberg has been traditionally Protestant (particularly Lutheran) since the Reformation in 1534 (with its centre at the famous Tübinger Stift). The former Electorate of the Palatinate (Northwestern Baden) with its capital Heidelberg was shaped by Calvinism before being integrated into Baden. Upper Swabia, and the Upper Neckar Valley up to the bishop seat of Rottenburg, and Southern Baden (the Catholic archbishop has its seat in Freiburg) have traditionally been bastions of Roman Catholicism. Catholics have a very narrow plurality in the state, with 6% of the population adhering to Islam and 24% of the population disclaiming any religion or adhering to other faiths.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Football is the biggest sport in Baden-Württemberg. Clubs currently competing in the Bundesliga include SC Freiburg, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the most successful club in the state, VfB Stuttgart, meanwhile Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Heidenheim, SV Sandhausen and Waldhof Mannheim also compete in the top three German soccer divisions.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: There are also multiple motorsport facilities, the most famous one being long-time Formula One circuit Hockenheimring.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Compared to other German states, Baden-Württemberg has a particularly high density of professional basketball teams such as Riesen Ludwigsburg, ratiopharm Ulm, USC Heidelberg, PS Karlsruhe Lions and others.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: Two dialect groups of German are spoken in Baden-Württemberg in various variants: Alemannic and Franconian dialects. In central and southern Württemberg, the Alemannic dialect of Swabian is spoken (slightly differing even within the area, e.g., between Upper Swabia, the Swabian Alb, and the central Neckar Valley of the Stuttgart region). In South Baden, the local dialects are Low Alemannic and High Alemannic (i.e., variants of what is also Swiss German). In the northern part of Baden, i.e., the area around Karlsruhe, Heilbronn and Mosbach, South Franconian dialects are predominant. In the "Kurpfalz", however, with the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, the idiom is Rhine Franconian (i.e., Palatinate German), while in the Northeast of Baden-Württemberg East Franconian is spoken.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: The same or similar Alemannic dialects are also spoken in the neighboring regions, especially in Bavarian Swabia, Alsace (Alsatian), German-speaking Switzerland (Swiss German), and the Austrian Vorarlberg. In contrast, the other Franconian dialects range from the Netherlands over the Rhineland, Lorraine, and Hesse up to Franconia in northern Bavaria.


title: Baden-Württemberg

text: A variant of the Alemannic German of Baden developed into the Colonia Tovar dialect, spoken by descendants of immigrants from Baden who went to Venezuela in 1843.


title: Death Proof

text: Death Proof is a 2007 American action-thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women with modified cars he purports to be "death-proof". Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell co-star as the women he targets.


title: Death Proof

text: The film was originally released theatrically as part of "Grindhouse" (2007), a double feature that combined "Death Proof" with Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror". After "Grindhouse" underperformed at the domestic box office, "Death Proof" was released as a standalone feature in other countries and on home media. It received mostly positive reviews for its stunt sequences and tribute to exploitation cinema, although its pacing was criticized.


title: Death Proof

text: Three friends, Arlene, Shanna and radio DJ "Jungle" Julia Lucai, drive down Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on their way to celebrate Julia's birthday. In a bar, Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement offering a free lap dance from Arlene in return for addressing her as "Butterfly," buying her a drink, and reciting a segment of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Aging Hollywood stunt double Mike McKay trails the women to a bar and claims the lap dance. He notes that Julia is on billboards across town, and she is cold towards him. He returns to sit with the group and recites the line to Arlene. She is suspicious, having seen Mike's car earlier that day watching her outside a restaurant, but he convinces her to give him the lap dance.


title: Death Proof

text: The women prepare to depart with Lanna, another friend, to Shanna's family lake house. Pam, Julia's old classmate, is in need of a ride home and accepts Mike's offer. Mike takes Pam to his Hollywood stunt car, which is rigged with a roll cage, and tells her the car is "death proof." Once Pam is in the passenger seat, he reveals it is only death proof for the driver. He speeds and slams on the brakes, smashing Pam's skull on the dashboard, killing her. He catches up with the women's car and drives into it at high speed, killing them. Mike survives with no serious injury. Texas Ranger Earl McGraw believes that Mike killed the women intentionally, but because Mike was sober while the women were intoxicated, he cannot be charged.


title: Death Proof

text: Fourteen months later, three young women — hair and makeup artist Abernathy "Abbie" Ross, stuntwoman Kim Mathis, and up-and-coming actress Lee Montgomery — are driving through Lebanon, Tennessee, where they are shooting a film together. They stop at a convenience store, where Mike watches them from his car. The women are en route to pick up Abbie and Kim's friend, stuntwoman Zoë Bell, from the airport while Mike inconspicuously photographs them. Zoë tells them that she wants to test-drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger, the same type of car from the 1971 film "Vanishing Point", that is for sale nearby. The owner lets them test-drive it unsupervised after Abernathy tells him that Lee is a porn star and will stay behind.


title: Death Proof

text: Zoë tells Abernathy and Kim that she wants to play a game they call "Ship's Mast," whereby she rides the hood holding belts fastened to the car while Kim drives at high speeds. Kim is hesitant, but agrees. The three enjoy the stunt, unaware that Mike is watching them. He rear-ends them in his car, causing Zoë to accidentally drop one of the belts. After several more collisions, he T-bones them, throwing Zoë from the hood. Kim shoots Mike's left shoulder, and he flees in his car. Abernathy and Kim cry over the loss of their friend, until Zoë emerges uninjured. The three agree to catch up to Mike and kill him.


title: Death Proof

text: Mike has stopped on a narrow road to treat his wound with whiskey. The women rear-end him at a high speed. Zoë gets out and beats him with a pipe, but he resists and drives off again. After a long chase, the women push Mike's car off the road. They drag him from the wreckage and beat him to death.


title: Death Proof

text: During a night of drinking with his friend Sean Penn, Tarantino learned about "death-proofing" cars from Penn. Tarantino developed a fascination with the concept and the story for "Death Proof" developed from the way stuntmen would "death-proof" stunt cars so a driver could survive horrific, high-speed crashes and collisions. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car. Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you."


title: Death Proof

text: According to Robert Rodriguez, "[Tarantino] had an idea and a complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He started to tell me the story and said, 'It's got this death-proof car in it.' I said, 'You have to call it "Death Proof".' I helped title the movie, but that's it." Of the car chases, Tarantino stated: "CGI for car stunts doesn't make any sense to me—how is that supposed to be impressive? [...] I don't think there have been any good car chases since I started making films in '92—to me, the last terrific car chase was in "Terminator 2". And "Final Destination 2" had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every time a stunt happens, there's twelve cameras and they use every angle for Avid editing, but I don't feel it in my stomach. It's just action." "Death Proof" marked Tarantino's first credit as a cinematographer.


title: Death Proof

text: Tarantino attempted to cast John Travolta, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Mickey Rourke, Ron Perlman, Bruce Willis, Kal Penn and Sylvester Stallone in "Death Proof", but none were able to work due to prior commitments. In an interview, Tarantino revealed that he cast Kurt Russell as the killer stunt driver because "for people of my generation, he's a true hero…but now, there's a whole audience out there that doesn't know what Kurt Russell can do. When I open the newspaper and see an ad that says 'Kurt Russell in "Dreamer",' or 'Kurt Russell in "Miracle",' I'm not disparaging these movies, but I'm thinking: when is Kurt Russell going to be a badass again?" Eli Roth, "Planet Terror" leading actress Rose McGowan, and Tarantino himself appear in the film. Roth flew in from Europe, where he was filming "", to film his scenes, which took one day.


title: Death Proof

text: After being stunned by stuntwoman Zoë Bell, who worked as Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's earlier film "Kill Bill", Tarantino wrote her the leading female role. This was her first on-screen acting role, which Bell initially thought was going to be merely a cameo. The character Zoë was based on the stuntwoman herself and includes small stories based around her real life experiences, some with Tarantino. It wasn't until she saw her name featured on the film posters opposite Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan that she realized how big the role was.


title: Death Proof

text: "Death Proof" uses various unconventional techniques to make the film appear more like those that were shown in grindhouse theaters in the 1970s. Throughout the feature, the film was intentionally damaged to make it look like many of the exploitation films of the 1970s which were generally shipped around from theater to theater and usually ended up in bad shape. A notable example of one of the film's deliberate jump-cuts is seen at the beginning, when the title "Quentin Tarantino's Thunderbolt" is shown for a split second before abruptly being replaced by an insert with the title "Death Proof", appearing in white lettering on a black background (exploitation films were commonly retitled, especially if they received bad press on initial release).


title: Death Proof

text: On the editing of "Death Proof", Tarantino stated, "There is half-an-hour's difference between my "Death Proof" and what is playing in "Grindhouse". […] I was like a brutish American exploitation distributor who cut the movie down almost to the point of incoherence. I cut it down to the bone and took all the fat off it to see if it could still exist, and it worked." An extended version of "Death Proof" was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival. Although publicized as 127 minutes long, this extended version is actually around 113 minutes. Tarantino is quoted as saying, "It works great as a double feature, but I'm just as excited if not more excited about actually having the world see "Death Proof" unfiltered. […] It will be the first time everyone sees "Death Proof" by itself, including me."


title: Death Proof

text: The soundtrack for "Death Proof" consists entirely of non-original music, including excerpts from the scores of other films. It was released on April 3, 2007, alongside the "Planet Terror" soundtrack. Both albums featured dialogue excerpts from the film.


title: Death Proof

text: "Death Proof" was released in the US and Canada alongside "Planet Terror" as part of a double feature under the title "Grindhouse". Both films were released separately in extended versions internationally, approximately two months apart. The additional material includes scenes that were replaced in the American theatrical release version with a "missing reel" title card, such as the lap dance scene. A total of 16 minutes were added for this version. One of the first screenings of "Death Proof" was made at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 20, 2007, with star Zoë Bell attending the screenings.


title: Death Proof

text: The Dutch poster artwork for "Death Proof" claimed that the film would feature "coming attractions" from Robert Rodriguez. In the United Kingdom, "Death Proof" was released on September 21, 2007, and in Australia on November 1, 2007. Explaining the split in foreign releases, Tarantino stated, "Especially if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don't really have this tradition … not only do they not really know what a grindhouse is, they don't even have the double feature tradition. So you are kind of trying to teach us something else."


title: Death Proof

text: "Death Proof" was released on DVD in the US on September 18, 2007, in a two-disc special edition featuring the extended version of the film; documentaries on the casting of the film, the various muscle cars, and Tarantino's relationship with editor Sally Menke; trailers; and an international poster gallery. On December 16, 2008, a Blu-ray Disc release of identical content followed.


title: Death Proof

text: A Japanese DVD release has the films "Grindhouse", "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror", with extras and fake trailers, in a six-DVD box set (English with optional Japanese subtitles). "Death Proof" was also released as a German HD DVD on December 15, 2008, believed to be the last film published in the now-defunct format. The "Grindhouse" double feature was eventually released on Blu-ray Disc in October 2010.


title: Death Proof

text: "Death Proof" earned a score of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10; the site's critical consensus reads: ""Death Proof" may feel somewhat minor in the context of Tarantino's larger filmography, but on its own merits, it packs just enough of a wallop to deliver sufficiently high-octane grindhouse goods." The French magazine "Les Cahiers du cinéma" ranked "Death Proof" second best film of the year 2007.


title: Death Proof

text: "Empire" gave the film four out of five stars and a mostly positive review, describing the film as "Tarantino driving wildly under the influence" and "seriously entertaining". The BBC's Anna Smith said that while there was "fun to be had" with the film, "its imitation of a defunct, low-budget style of movie-making is perhaps too accurate when it comes to the genre's flaws", and gave the film three out of five stars. Roger Ebert gave "Grindhouse" 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing that while "Death Proof" was the more enjoyable half of the bill, it was still marred by overlong scenes of expository dialogue.


title: Death Proof

text: "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw expressed admiration for the car crash scene, describing it as "a lethal roar of entertainment", but said that the film was padded with "long, long, long stretches of bizarrely inconsequential conversation […] which are a big comedown from the glorious riffs from "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction"", and that overall "Tarantino's twisted genius is there for all to see – but, it must now be admitted, all too briefly". Tarantino said at a director's roundtable, ""Death Proof" has got to be the worst movie I ever made. And for a left-handed movie, that wasn't so bad, all right?—so if that's the worst I ever get, I'm good."


title: MOSFET

text: The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most commonly fabricated by the controlled oxidation of silicon. It has an insulated gate, the voltage of which determines the conductivity of the device. This ability to change conductivity with the amount of applied voltage can be used for amplifying or switching electronic signals. A metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) is a term almost synonymous with MOSFET. Another synonym is IGFET for insulated-gate field-effect transistor.


title: MOSFET

text: The basic principle of the field-effect transistor was first patented by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925.


title: MOSFET

text: The main advantage of a MOSFET is that it requires almost no input current to control the load current, when compared with bipolar transistors (bipolar junction transistors/BJTs). In an "enhancement mode" MOSFET, voltage applied to the gate terminal increases the conductivity of the device. In "depletion mode" transistors, voltage applied at the gate reduces the conductivity.


title: MOSFET

text: The "metal" in the name MOSFET is sometimes a misnomer, because the gate material can be a layer of polysilicon (polycrystalline silicon). Similarly, "oxide" in the name can also be a misnomer, as different dielectric materials are used with the aim of obtaining strong channels with smaller applied voltages.


title: MOSFET

text: The MOSFET is by far the most common transistor in digital circuits, as billions may be included in a memory chip or microprocessor. Since MOSFETs can be made with either p-type or n-type semiconductors, complementary pairs of MOS transistors can be used to make switching circuits with very low power consumption, in the form of CMOS logic.


title: MOSFET

text: The basic principle of this kind of transistor was first patented by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925.


title: MOSFET

text: The structure resembling the MOS transistor was proposed by Bell scientists William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, during their investigation that led to discovery of the transistor effect. The structure failed to show the anticipated effects, due to the problem of surface state: traps on the semiconductor surface that hold electrons immobile. In 1955 Carl Frosch and L. Derick accidentally grew a layer of silicon dioxide over the silicon wafer. Further research showed that silicon dioxide could prevent dopants from diffusing into the silicon wafer. Building on this work Mohamed M. Atalla showed that silicon dioxide is very effective in solving the problem of one important class of surface states.


title: MOSFET

text: Following this Atalla and Dawon Kahng demonstrated a device that had the structure of a modern MOS transistor. The principles behind the device were the same as the ones that were tried by Bardeen, Shockley and Brattain in their unsuccessful attempt to build a surface field-effect device.


title: MOSFET

text: The device was about 100 times slower than contemporary bipolar transistors and was initially seen as inferior. Nevertheless Kahng pointed out several advantages of the device, notably ease of fabrication and its application in integrated circuits.


title: MOSFET

text: Usually the semiconductor of choice is silicon. Recently, some chip manufacturers, most notably IBM and Intel, have started using an alloy of silicon and germanium (SiGe) in MOSFET channels. Unfortunately, many semiconductors with better electrical properties than silicon, such as gallium arsenide, do not form good semiconductor-to-insulator interfaces, and thus are not suitable for MOSFETs. Research continues on creating insulators with acceptable electrical characteristics on other semiconductor materials.


title: MOSFET

text: To overcome the increase in power consumption due to gate current leakage, a high-κ dielectric is used instead of silicon dioxide for the gate insulator, while polysilicon is replaced by metal gates (e.g. Intel, 2009)


title: MOSFET

text: The gate is separated from the channel by a thin insulating layer, traditionally of silicon dioxide and later of silicon oxynitride. Some companies have started to introduce a high-κ dielectric and metal gate combination in the 45 nanometer node.


title: MOSFET

text: When a voltage is applied between the gate and body terminals, the electric field generated penetrates through the oxide and creates an "inversion layer" or "channel" at the semiconductor-insulator interface. The inversion layer provides a channel through which current can pass between source and drain terminals. Varying the voltage between the gate and body modulates the conductivity of this layer and thereby controls the current flow between drain and source. This is known as enhancement mode.


title: MOSFET

text: The traditional metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure is obtained by growing a layer of silicon dioxide () on top of a silicon substrate, commonly by thermal oxidation and depositing a layer of metal or polycrystalline silicon (the latter is commonly used). As the silicon dioxide is a dielectric material, its structure is equivalent to a planar capacitor, with one of the electrodes replaced by a semiconductor.


title: MOSFET

text: When a voltage is applied across a MOS structure, it modifies the distribution of charges in the semiconductor. If we consider a p-type semiconductor (with formula_1 the density of acceptors, "p" the density of holes; "p = N" in neutral bulk), a positive voltage, formula_2, from gate to body (see figure) creates a depletion layer by forcing the positively charged holes away from the gate-insulator/semiconductor interface, leaving exposed a carrier-free region of immobile, negatively charged acceptor ions (see doping (semiconductor)). If formula_2 is high enough, a high concentration of negative charge carriers forms in an "inversion layer" located in a thin layer next to the interface between the semiconductor and the insulator.


title: MOSFET

text: Conventionally, the gate voltage at which the volume density of electrons in the inversion layer is the same as the volume density of holes in the body is called the threshold voltage. When the voltage between transistor gate and source ("V") exceeds the threshold voltage ("V"), the difference is known as overdrive voltage.


title: MOSFET

text: This structure with p-type body is the basis of the n-type MOSFET, which requires the addition of n-type source and drain regions.


title: MOSFET

text: The MOS capacitor structure is the heart of the MOSFET. Consider a MOS capacitor where the silicon base is of p-type. If a positive voltage is applied at the gate, holes which are at the surface of the p-type substrate will be repelled by the electric field generated by the voltage applied. At first, the holes will simply be repelled and what will remain on the surface will be immobile (negative) atoms of the acceptor type, which creates a depletion region on the surface. Remember that a hole is created by an acceptor atom, e.g. Boron, which has one less electron than Silicon. One might ask how can holes be repelled if they are actually non-entities? The answer is that what really happens is not that a hole is repelled, but electrons are attracted by the positive field, and fill these holes, creating a depletion region where no charge carriers exist because the electron is now fixed onto the atom and immobile.


title: MOSFET

text: As the voltage at the gate increases, there will be a point at which the surface above the depletion region will be converted from p-type into n-type, as electrons from the bulk area will start to get attracted by the larger electric field. This is known as "inversion". The threshold voltage at which this conversion happens is one of the most important parameters in a MOSFET.


title: MOSFET

text: In the case of a p-type bulk, inversion happens when the intrinsic energy level at the surface becomes smaller than the Fermi level at the surface. One can see this from a band diagram. Remember that the Fermi level defines the type of semiconductor in discussion. If the Fermi level is equal to the Intrinsic level, the semiconductor is of intrinsic, or pure type. If the Fermi level lies closer to the conduction band (valence band) then the semiconductor type will be of n-type (p-type). Therefore, when the gate voltage is increased in a positive sense (for the given example), this will "bend" the intrinsic energy level band so that it will curve downwards towards the valence band. If the Fermi level lies closer to the valence band (for p-type), there will be a point when the Intrinsic level will start to cross the Fermi level and when the voltage reaches the threshold voltage, the intrinsic level does cross the Fermi level, and that is what is known as inversion. At that point, the surface of the semiconductor is inverted from p-type into n-type. Remember that as said above, if the Fermi level lies above the Intrinsic level, the semiconductor is of n-type, therefore at Inversion, when the Intrinsic level reaches and crosses the Fermi level (which lies closer to the valence band), the semiconductor type changes at the surface as dictated by the relative positions of the Fermi and Intrinsic energy levels.


title: MOSFET

text: A MOSFET is based on the modulation of charge concentration by a MOS capacitance between a "body" electrode and a "gate" electrode located above the body and insulated from all other device regions by a gate dielectric layer. If dielectrics other than an oxide are employed, the device may be referred to as a metal-insulator-semiconductor FET (MISFET). Compared to the MOS capacitor, the MOSFET includes two additional terminals ("source" and "drain"), each connected to individual highly doped regions that are separated by the body region. These regions can be either p or n type, but they must both be of the same type, and of opposite type to the body region. The source and drain (unlike the body) are highly doped as signified by a "+" sign after the type of doping.


title: MOSFET

text: If the MOSFET is an n-channel or nMOS FET, then the source and drain are "n+" regions and the body is a "p" region. If the MOSFET is a p-channel or pMOS FET, then the source and drain are "p+" regions and the body is a "n" region. The source is so named because it is the source of the charge carriers (electrons for n-channel, holes for p-channel) that flow through the channel; similarly, the drain is where the charge carriers leave the channel.


title: MOSFET

text: The occupancy of the energy bands in a semiconductor is set by the position of the Fermi level relative to the semiconductor energy-band edges.


title: MOSFET

text: With sufficient gate voltage, the valence band edge is driven far from the Fermi level, and holes from the body are driven away from the gate.


title: MOSFET

text: At larger gate bias still, near the semiconductor surface the conduction band edge is brought close to the Fermi level, populating the surface with electrons in an "inversion layer" or "n-channel" at the interface between the p region and the oxide. This conducting channel extends between the source and the drain, and current is conducted through it when a voltage is applied between the two electrodes. Increasing the voltage on the gate leads to a higher electron density in the inversion layer and therefore increases the current flow between the source and drain. For gate voltages below the threshold value, the channel is lightly populated, and only a very small subthreshold leakage current can flow between the source and the drain.


title: MOSFET

text: When a negative gate-source voltage (positive source-gate) is applied, it creates a "p-channel" at the surface of the n region, analogous to the n-channel case, but with opposite polarities of charges and voltages. When a voltage less negative than the threshold value (a negative voltage for the p-channel) is applied between gate and source, the channel disappears and only a very small subthreshold current can flow between the source and the drain. The device may comprise a silicon on insulator device in which a buried oxide is formed below a thin semiconductor layer. If the channel region between the gate dielectric and the buried oxide region is very thin, the channel is referred to as an ultrathin channel region with the source and drain regions formed on either side in or above the thin semiconductor layer. Other semiconductor materials may be employed. When the source and drain regions are formed above the channel in whole or in part, they are referred to as raised source/drain regions.


title: MOSFET

text: The operation of a MOSFET can be separated into three different modes, depending on the voltages at the terminals. In the following discussion, a simplified algebraic model is used. Modern MOSFET characteristics are more complex than the algebraic model presented here.


title: MOSFET

text: According to the basic threshold model, the transistor is turned off, and there is no conduction between drain and source. A more accurate model considers the effect of thermal energy on the Fermi–Dirac distribution of electron energies which allow some of the more energetic electrons at the source to enter the channel and flow to the drain. This results in a subthreshold current that is an exponential function of gate-source voltage. While the current between drain and source should ideally be zero when the transistor is being used as a turned-off switch, there is a weak-inversion current, sometimes called subthreshold leakage.


title: MOSFET

text: In weak inversion where the source is tied to bulk, the current varies exponentially with formula_4 as given approximately by:


title: MOSFET

text: where formula_8 = current at formula_9, the thermal voltage formula_10 and the slope factor "n" is given by:


title: MOSFET

text: with formula_12 = capacitance of the depletion layer and formula_13 = capacitance of the oxide layer. This equation is generally used, but is only an adequate approximation for the source tied to the bulk. For the source not tied to the bulk, the subthreshold equation for drain current in saturation is


title: MOSFET

text: In a long-channel device, there is no drain voltage dependence of the current once formula_15, but as channel length is reduced drain-induced barrier lowering introduces drain voltage dependence that depends in a complex way upon the device geometry (for example, the channel doping, the junction doping and so on). Frequently, threshold voltage "V" for this mode is defined as the gate voltage at which a selected value of current "I" occurs, for example, "I" = 1μA, which may not be the same "V"-value used in the equations for the following modes.


title: MOSFET

text: Some micropower analog circuits are designed to take advantage of subthreshold conduction. By working in the weak-inversion region, the MOSFETs in these circuits deliver the highest possible transconductance-to-current ratio, namely: formula_16, almost that of a bipolar transistor.


title: MOSFET

text: The subthreshold "I–V curve" depends exponentially upon threshold voltage, introducing a strong dependence on any manufacturing variation that affects threshold voltage; for example: variations in oxide thickness, junction depth, or body doping that change the degree of drain-induced barrier lowering. The resulting sensitivity to fabricational variations complicates optimization for leakage and performance.


title: MOSFET

text: The transistor is turned on, and a channel has been created which allows current between the drain and the source. The MOSFET operates like a resistor, controlled by the gate voltage relative to both the source and drain voltages. The current from drain to source is modeled as:


title: MOSFET

text: where formula_18 is the charge-carrier effective mobility, formula_19 is the gate width, formula_20 is the gate length and formula_13 is the gate oxide capacitance per unit area. The transition from the exponential subthreshold region to the triode region is not as sharp as the equations suggest.


title: MOSFET

text: The switch is turned on, and a channel has been created, which allows current between the drain and source. Since the drain voltage is higher than the source voltage, the electrons spread out, and conduction is not through a narrow channel but through a broader, two- or three-dimensional current distribution extending away from the interface and deeper in the substrate. The onset of this region is also known as pinch-off to indicate the lack of channel region near the drain. Although the channel does not extend the full length of the device, the electric field between the drain and the channel is very high, and conduction continues. The drain current is now weakly dependent upon drain voltage and controlled primarily by the gate-source voltage, and modeled approximately as:


title: MOSFET

text: The additional factor involving λ, the channel-length modulation parameter, models current dependence on drain voltage due to the Early effect, or channel length modulation. According to this equation, a key design parameter, the MOSFET transconductance is:


title: MOSFET

text: where the combination "V" = "V" − "V" is called the overdrive voltage, and where "V" = "V" − "V" accounts for a small discontinuity in formula_24 which would otherwise appear at the transition between the triode and saturation regions.


title: MOSFET

text: If λ is taken as zero, an infinite output resistance of the device results that leads to unrealistic circuit predictions, particularly in analog circuits.


title: MOSFET

text: As the channel length becomes very short, these equations become quite inaccurate. New physical effects arise. For example, carrier transport in the active mode may become limited by velocity saturation. When velocity saturation dominates, the saturation drain current is more nearly linear than quadratic in "V". At even shorter lengths, carriers transport with near zero scattering, known as quasi-ballistic transport. In the ballistic regime, the carriers travel at an injection velocity that may exceed the saturation velocity and approaches the Fermi velocity at high inversion charge density. In addition, drain-induced barrier lowering increases off-state (cutoff) current and requires an increase in threshold voltage to compensate, which in turn reduces the saturation current.


title: MOSFET

text: The occupancy of the energy bands in a semiconductor is set by the position of the Fermi level relative to the semiconductor energy-band edges. Application of a source-to-substrate reverse bias of the source-body pn-junction introduces a split between the Fermi levels for electrons and holes, moving the Fermi level for the channel further from the band edge, lowering the occupancy of the channel. The effect is to increase the gate voltage necessary to establish the channel, as seen in the figure. This change in channel strength by application of reverse bias is called the 'body effect'.


title: MOSFET

text: Simply put, using an nMOS example, the gate-to-body bias "V" positions the conduction-band energy levels, while the source-to-body bias V positions the electron Fermi level near the interface, deciding occupancy of these levels near the interface, and hence the strength of the inversion layer or channel.


title: MOSFET

text: The body effect upon the channel can be described using a modification of the threshold voltage, approximated by the following equation:


title: MOSFET

text: where "V" is the threshold voltage with substrate bias present, and "V" is the zero-"V" value of threshold voltage, formula_28 is the body effect parameter, and 2"φ" is the approximate potential drop between surface and bulk across the depletion layer when and gate bias is sufficient to ensure that a channel is present. As this equation shows, a reverse bias causes an increase in threshold voltage "V" and therefore demands a larger gate voltage before the channel populates.


title: MOSFET

text: The body can be operated as a second gate, and is sometimes referred to as the "back gate"; the body effect is sometimes called the "back-gate effect".


title: MOSFET

text: A variety of symbols are used for the MOSFET. The basic design is generally a line for the channel with the source and drain leaving it at right angles and then bending back at right angles into the same direction as the channel. Sometimes three line segments are used for enhancement mode and a solid line for depletion mode (see depletion and enhancement modes). Another line is drawn parallel to the channel for the gate.


title: MOSFET

text: The "bulk" or "body" connection, if shown, is shown connected to the back of the channel with an arrow indicating pMOS or nMOS. Arrows always point from P to N, so an NMOS (N-channel in P-well or P-substrate) has the arrow pointing in (from the bulk to the channel). If the bulk is connected to the source (as is generally the case with discrete devices) it is sometimes angled to meet up with the source leaving the transistor. If the bulk is not shown (as is often the case in IC design as they are generally common bulk) an inversion symbol is sometimes used to indicate PMOS, alternatively an arrow on the source may be used in the same way as for bipolar transistors (out for nMOS, in for pMOS).


title: MOSFET

text: Comparison of enhancement-mode and depletion-mode MOSFET symbols, along with JFET symbols. The orientation of the symbols, (most significantly the position of source relative to drain) is such that more positive voltages appear higher on the page than less positive voltages, implying conventional current flowing "down" the page:


title: MOSFET

text: In schematics where G, S, D are not labeled, the detailed features of the symbol indicate which terminal is source and which is drain. For enhancement-mode and depletion-mode MOSFET symbols (in columns two and five), the source terminal is the one connected to the triangle. Additionally, in this diagram, the gate is shown as an "L" shape, whose input leg is closer to S than D, also indicating which is which. However, these symbols are often drawn with a "T" shaped gate (as elsewhere on this page), so it is the triangle which must be relied upon to indicate the source terminal.


title: MOSFET

text: For the symbols in which the bulk, or body, terminal is shown, it is here shown internally connected to the source (i.e., the black triangles in the diagrams in columns 2 and 5). This is a typical configuration, but by no means the only important configuration. In general, the MOSFET is a four-terminal device, and in integrated circuits many of the MOSFETs share a body connection, not necessarily connected to the source terminals of all the transistors.


title: MOSFET

text: Digital integrated circuits such as microprocessors and memory devices contain thousands to millions of integrated MOSFET transistors on each device, providing the basic switching functions required to implement logic gates and data storage. Discrete devices are widely used in applications such as switch mode power supplies, variable-frequency drives and other power electronics applications where each device may be switching thousands of watts. Radio-frequency amplifiers up to the UHF spectrum use MOSFET transistors as analog signal and power amplifiers. Radio systems also use MOSFETs as oscillators, or mixers to convert frequencies. MOSFET devices are also applied in audio-frequency power amplifiers for public address systems, sound reinforcement and home and automobile sound systems


title: MOSFET

text: Following the development of clean rooms to reduce contamination to levels never before thought necessary, and of photolithography and the planar process to allow circuits to be made in very few steps, the Si–SiO system possessed the technical attractions of low cost of production (on a per circuit basis) and ease of integration. Largely because of these two factors, the MOSFET has become the most widely used type of transistor in IET.


title: MOSFET

text: Additionally, the method of coupling two complementary MOSFETS (P-channel and N-channel) into one high/low switch, known as CMOS, means that digital circuits dissipate very little power except when actually switched.


title: MOSFET

text: The earliest microprocessors starting in 1970 were all "MOS microprocessors"; i.e., fabricated entirely from PMOS logic or fabricated entirely from NMOS logic. In the 1970s, "MOS microprocessors" were often contrasted with "CMOS microprocessors" and "bipolar bit-slice processors".


title: MOSFET

text: The MOSFET is used in digital complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic, which uses p- and n-channel MOSFETs as building blocks. Overheating is a major concern in integrated circuits since ever more transistors are packed into ever smaller chips. CMOS logic reduces power consumption because no current flows (ideally), and thus no power is consumed, except when the inputs to logic gates are being switched. CMOS accomplishes this current reduction by complementing every nMOSFET with a pMOSFET and connecting both gates and both drains together. A high voltage on the gates will cause the nMOSFET to conduct and the pMOSFET not to conduct and a low voltage on the gates causes the reverse. During the switching time as the voltage goes from one state to another, both MOSFETs will conduct briefly. This arrangement greatly reduces power consumption and heat generation.


title: MOSFET

text: The growth of digital technologies like the microprocessor has provided the motivation to advance MOSFET technology faster than any other type of silicon-based transistor. A big advantage of MOSFETs for digital switching is that the oxide layer between the gate and the channel prevents DC current from flowing through the gate, further reducing power consumption and giving a very large input impedance. The insulating oxide between the gate and channel effectively isolates a MOSFET in one logic stage from earlier and later stages, which allows a single MOSFET output to drive a considerable number of MOSFET inputs. Bipolar transistor-based logic (such as TTL) does not have such a high fanout capacity. This isolation also makes it easier for the designers to ignore to some extent loading effects between logic stages independently. That extent is defined by the operating frequency: as frequencies increase, the input impedance of the MOSFETs decreases.


title: MOSFET

text: The MOSFET's advantages in digital circuits do not translate into supremacy in all analog circuits. The two types of circuit draw upon different features of transistor behavior. Digital circuits switch, spending most of their time either fully on or fully off. The transition from one to the other is only of concern with regards to speed and charge required. Analog circuits depend on operation in the transition region where small changes to "V" can modulate the output (drain) current. The JFET and bipolar junction transistor (BJT) are preferred for accurate matching (of adjacent devices in integrated circuits), higher transconductance and certain temperature characteristics which simplify keeping performance predictable as circuit temperature varies.


title: MOSFET

text: Nevertheless, MOSFETs are widely used in many types of analog circuits because of their own advantages (zero gate current, high and adjustable output impedance and improved robustness vs. BJTs which can be permanently degraded by even lightly breaking down the emitter-base). The characteristics and performance of many analog circuits can be scaled up or down by changing the sizes (length and width) of the MOSFETs used. By comparison, in bipolar transistors follow a different scaling law. MOSFETs' ideal characteristics regarding gate current (zero) and drain-source offset voltage (zero) also make them nearly ideal switch elements, and also make switched capacitor analog circuits practical. In their linear region, MOSFETs can be used as precision resistors, which can have a much higher controlled resistance than BJTs. In high power circuits, MOSFETs sometimes have the advantage of not suffering from thermal runaway as BJTs do. This means that complete analog circuits can be made on a silicon chip in a much smaller space and with simpler fabrication techniques. MOSFETS are ideally suited to switch inductive loads because of tolerance to inductive kickback.


title: MOSFET

text: Some ICs combine analog and digital MOSFET circuitry on a single mixed-signal integrated circuit, making the needed board space even smaller. This creates a need to isolate the analog circuits from the digital circuits on a chip level, leading to the use of isolation rings and silicon on insulator (SOI). Since MOSFETs require more space to handle a given amount of power than a BJT, fabrication processes can incorporate BJTs and MOSFETs into a single device. Mixed-transistor devices are called bi-FETs (bipolar FETs) if they contain just one BJT-FET and BiCMOS (bipolar-CMOS) if they contain complementary BJT-FETs. Such devices have the advantages of both insulated gates and higher current density.


title: MOSFET

text: MOSFET analog switches use the MOSFET to pass analog signals when on, and as a high impedance when off. Signals flow in both directions across a MOSFET switch. In this application, the drain and source of a MOSFET exchange places depending on the relative voltages of the source/drain electrodes. The source is the more negative side for an N-MOS or the more positive side for a P-MOS. All of these switches are limited on what signals they can pass or stop by their gate-source, gate-drain and source–drain voltages; exceeding the voltage, current, or power limits will potentially damage the switch.


title: MOSFET

text: In the case of an n-type switch, the body is connected to the most negative supply (usually GND) and the gate is used as the switch control. Whenever the gate voltage exceeds the source voltage by at least a threshold voltage, the MOSFET conducts. The higher the voltage, the more the MOSFET can conduct. An N-MOS switch passes all voltages less than "V" − "V". When the switch is conducting, it typically operates in the linear (or ohmic) mode of operation, since the source and drain voltages will typically be nearly equal.


title: MOSFET

text: In the case of a P-MOS, the body is connected to the most positive voltage, and the gate is brought to a lower potential to turn the switch on. The P-MOS switch passes all voltages higher than "V" − "V" (threshold voltage "V" is negative in the case of enhancement-mode P-MOS).


title: MOSFET

text: This "complementary" or CMOS type of switch uses one P-MOS and one N-MOS FET to counteract the limitations of the single-type switch. The FETs have their drains and sources connected in parallel, the body of the P-MOS is connected to the high potential ("V") and the body of the N-MOS is connected to the low potential ("gnd"). To turn the switch on, the gate of the P-MOS is driven to the low potential and the gate of the N-MOS is driven to the high potential. For voltages between "V" − "V" and "gnd" − "V", both FETs conduct the signal; for voltages less than "gnd" − "V", the N-MOS conducts alone; and for voltages greater than "V" − "V", the P-MOS conducts alone.


title: MOSFET

text: The voltage limits for this switch are the gate-source, gate-drain and source-drain voltage limits for both FETs. Also, the P-MOS is typically two to three times wider than the N-MOS, so the switch will be balanced for speed in the two directions.


title: MOSFET

text: Tri-state circuitry sometimes incorporates a CMOS MOSFET switch on its output to provide for a low-ohmic, full-range output when on, and a high-ohmic, mid-level signal when off.


title: MOSFET

text: The primary criterion for the gate material is that it is a good conductor. Highly doped polycrystalline silicon is an acceptable but certainly not ideal conductor, and also suffers from some more technical deficiencies in its role as the standard gate material. Nevertheless, there are several reasons favoring use of polysilicon:


title: MOSFET

text: While polysilicon gates have been the de facto standard for the last twenty years, they do have some disadvantages which have led to their likely future replacement by metal gates. These disadvantages include:


title: MOSFET

text: Present high performance CPUs use metal gate technology, together with high-κ dielectrics, a combination known as "high-κ, metal gate" (HKMG). The disadvantages of metal gates are overcome by a few techniques:


title: MOSFET

text: As devices are made smaller, insulating layers are made thinner, often through steps of thermal oxidation or localised oxidation of silicon (LOCOS). For nano-scaled devices, at some point tunneling of carriers through the insulator from the channel to the gate electrode takes place. To reduce the resulting leakage current, the insulator can be made thinner by choosing a material with a higher dielectric constant. To see how thickness and dielectric constant are related, note that Gauss's law connects field to charge as:


title: MOSFET

text: with "Q" = charge density, κ = dielectric constant, ε = permittivity of empty space and "E" = electric field. From this law it appears the same charge can be maintained in the channel at a lower field provided κ is increased. The voltage on the gate is given by:


title: MOSFET

text: with "V" = gate voltage, "V" = voltage at channel side of insulator, and "t" = insulator thickness. This equation shows the gate voltage will not increase when the insulator thickness increases, provided κ increases to keep "t" / κ = constant (see the article on high-κ dielectrics for more detail, and the section in this article on gate-oxide leakage).


title: MOSFET

text: The insulator in a MOSFET is a dielectric which can in any event be silicon oxide, formed by LOCOS but many other dielectric materials are employed. The generic term for the dielectric is gate dielectric since the dielectric lies directly below the gate electrode and above the channel of the MOSFET.


title: MOSFET

text: The source-to-body and drain-to-body junctions are the object of much attention because of three major factors: their design affects the current-voltage ("I-V") characteristics of the device, lowering output resistance, and also the speed of the device through the loading effect of the junction capacitances, and finally, the component of stand-by power dissipation due to junction leakage.


title: MOSFET

text: The drain induced barrier lowering of the threshold voltage and channel length modulation effects upon "I-V" curves are reduced by using shallow junction extensions. In addition, "halo" doping can be used, that is, the addition of very thin heavily doped regions of the same doping type as the body tight against the junction walls to limit the extent of depletion regions.


title: MOSFET

text: The capacitive effects are limited by using raised source and drain geometries that make most of the contact area border thick dielectric instead of silicon.


title: MOSFET

text: Over the past decades, the MOSFET (as used for digital logic) has continually been scaled down in size; typical MOSFET channel lengths were once several micrometres, but modern integrated circuits are incorporating MOSFETs with channel lengths of tens of nanometers. Robert Dennard's work on scaling theory was pivotal in recognising that this ongoing reduction was possible. Intel began production of a process featuring a 32 nm feature size (with the channel being even shorter) in late 2009. The semiconductor industry maintains a "roadmap", the ITRS, which sets the pace for MOSFET development. Historically, the difficulties with decreasing the size of the MOSFET have been associated with the semiconductor device fabrication process, the need to use very low voltages, and with poorer electrical performance necessitating circuit redesign and innovation (small MOSFETs exhibit higher leakage currents and lower output resistance).


title: MOSFET

text: Smaller MOSFETs are desirable for several reasons. The main reason to make transistors smaller is to pack more and more devices in a given chip area. This results in a chip with the same functionality in a smaller area, or chips with more functionality in the same area. Since fabrication costs for a semiconductor wafer are relatively fixed, the cost per integrated circuits is mainly related to the number of chips that can be produced per wafer. Hence, smaller ICs allow more chips per wafer, reducing the price per chip. In fact, over the past 30 years the number of transistors per chip has been doubled every 2–3 years once a new technology node is introduced. For example, the number of MOSFETs in a microprocessor fabricated in a 45 nm technology can well be twice as many as in a 65 nm chip. This doubling of transistor density was first observed by Gordon Moore in 1965 and is commonly referred to as Moore's law. It is also expected that smaller transistors switch faster. For example, one approach to size reduction is a scaling of the MOSFET that requires all device dimensions to reduce proportionally. The main device dimensions are the channel length, channel width, and oxide thickness. When they are scaled down by equal factors, the transistor channel resistance does not change, while gate capacitance is cut by that factor. Hence, the RC delay of the transistor scales with a similar factor. While this has been traditionally the case for the older technologies, for the state-of-the-art MOSFETs reduction of the transistor dimensions does not necessarily translate to higher chip speed because the delay due to interconnections is more significant.


title: MOSFET

text: Producing MOSFETs with channel lengths much smaller than a micrometre is a challenge, and the difficulties of semiconductor device fabrication are always a limiting factor in advancing integrated circuit technology. Though processes such as ALD have improved fabrication for small components, the small size of the MOSFET (less than a few tens of nanometers) has created operational problems:


title: MOSFET

text: The dual-gate MOSFET has a tetrode configuration, where both gates control the current in the device. It is commonly used for small-signal devices in radio frequency applications where biasing the drain-side gate at constant potential reduces the gain loss caused by Miller effect, replacing two separate transistors in cascode configuration. Other common uses in RF circuits include gain control and mixing (frequency conversion). The "tetrode" description, though accurate, does not replicate the vacuum-tube tetrode. Vacuum-tube tetrodes, using a screen grid, exhibit much lower grid-plate capacitance and much higher output impedance and voltage gains than triode vacuum tubes. These improvements are commonly an order of magnitude (10 times) or considerably more. Tetrode transistors (whether bipolar junction or field-effect) do not exhibit improvements of such a great degree.


title: MOSFET

text: The FinFET is a double-gate silicon-on-insulator device, one of a number of geometries being introduced to mitigate the effects of short channels and reduce drain-induced barrier lowering. The "fin" refers to the narrow channel between source and drain. A thin insulating oxide layer on either side of the fin separates it from the gate. SOI FinFETs with a thick oxide on top of the fin are called "double-gate" and those with a thin oxide on top as well as on the sides are called "triple-gate" FinFETs.


title: MOSFET

text: There are "depletion-mode" MOSFET devices, which are less commonly used than the standard "enhancement-mode" devices already described. These are MOSFET devices that are doped so that a channel exists even with zero voltage from gate to source. To control the channel, a negative voltage is applied to the gate (for an n-channel device), depleting the channel, which reduces the current flow through the device. In essence, the depletion-mode device is equivalent to a normally closed (on) switch, while the enhancement-mode device is equivalent to a normally open (off) switch.


title: MOSFET

text: Due to their low noise figure in the RF region, and better gain, these devices are often preferred to bipolars in RF front-ends such as in TV sets.


title: MOSFET

text: Depletion-mode MOSFET families include BF960 by Siemens and Telefunken, and the BF980 in the 1980s by Philips (later to become NXP Semiconductors), whose derivatives are still used in AGC and RF mixer front-ends.


title: MOSFET

text: Metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect-transistor, or "MISFET", is a more general term than "MOSFET" and a synonym to "insulated-gate field-effect transistor" (IGFET). All MOSFETs are MISFETs, but not all MISFETs are MOSFETs.


title: MOSFET

text: The gate dielectric insulator in a MISFET is silicon dioxide in a MOSFET, but other materials can also be employed. The gate dielectric lies directly below the gate electrode and above the channel of the MISFET. The term "metal" is historically used for the gate material, even though now it is usually highly doped polysilicon or some other non-metal.


title: MOSFET

text: For devices of equal current driving capability, n-channel MOSFETs can be made smaller than p-channel MOSFETs, due to p-channel charge carriers (holes) having lower mobility than do n-channel charge carriers (electrons), and producing only one type of MOSFET on a silicon substrate is cheaper and technically simpler. These were the driving principles in the design of NMOS logic which uses n-channel MOSFETs exclusively. However, neglecting leakage current, unlike CMOS logic, NMOS logic consumes power even when no switching is taking place. With advances in technology, CMOS logic displaced NMOS logic in the mid-1980s to become the preferred process for digital chips.


title: MOSFET

text: Power MOSFETs have a different structure. As with most power devices, the structure is vertical and not planar. Using a vertical structure, it is possible for the transistor to sustain both high blocking voltage and high current. The voltage rating of the transistor is a function of the doping and thickness of the N-epitaxial layer (see cross section), while the current rating is a function of the channel width (the wider the channel, the higher the current). In a planar structure, the current and breakdown voltage ratings are both a function of the channel dimensions (respectively width and length of the channel), resulting in inefficient use of the "silicon estate". With the vertical structure, the component area is roughly proportional to the current it can sustain, and the component thickness (actually the N-epitaxial layer thickness) is proportional to the breakdown voltage.


title: MOSFET

text: Power MOSFETs with lateral structure are mainly used in high-end audio amplifiers and high-power PA systems. Their advantage is a better behaviour in the saturated region (corresponding to the linear region of a bipolar transistor) than the vertical MOSFETs. Vertical MOSFETs are designed for switching applications.


title: MOSFET

text: There are "LDMOS" (lateral double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor) and "VDMOS" (vertical double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor). Most power MOSFETs are made using this technology.


title: MOSFET

text: Semiconductor sub-micrometer and nanometer electronic circuits are the primary concern for operating within the normal tolerance in harsh radiation environments like outer space. One of the design approaches for making a radiation-hardened-by-design (RHBD) device is enclosed-layout-transistor (ELT). Normally, the gate of the MOSFET surrounds the drain, which is placed in the center of the ELT. The source of the MOSFET surrounds the gate. Another RHBD MOSFET is called H-Gate. Both of these transistors have very low leakage currents with respect to radiation. However, they are large in size and take up more space on silicon than a standard MOSFET. In older STI (shallow trench isolation) designs, radiation strikes near the silicon oxide region cause the channel inversion at the corners of the standard MOSFET due to accumulation of radiation induced trapped charges. If the charges are large enough, the accumulated charges affect STI surface edges along the channel near the channel interface (gate) of the standard MOSFET. This causes a device channel inversion to occur along the channel edges, creating an off-state leakage path. Subsequently, the device turns on; this process severely degrades the reliability of circuits. The ELT offers many advantages, including an improvement of reliability by reducing unwanted surface inversion at the gate edges which occurs in the standard MOSFET. Since the gate edges are enclosed in ELT, there is no gate oxide edge (STI at gate interface), and thus the transistor off-state leakage is reduced very much. Low-power microelectronic circuits including computers, communication devices, and monitoring systems in space shuttles and satellites are very different from what is used on earth. They are radiation (high-speed atomic particles like proton and neutron, solar flare magnetic energy dissipation in Earth's space, energetic cosmic rays like X-ray, gamma ray etc.) tolerant circuits. These special electronics are designed by applying different techniques using RHBD MOSFETs to ensure safe space journeys and safe space-walks of astronauts.


title: Weathering with You

text: It features the voices of and Nana Mori, with animation direction by Atsushi Tamura, character design by Masayoshi Tanaka, and its orchestral score and soundtrack composed by Radwimps; the latter two previously collaborated with Shinkai on "Your Name" (2016). A light novel of the same name, also written by Shinkai, was published a day prior the film's premiere, while a manga adaptation was serialized in "Afternoon" on July 25, 2019.


title: Weathering with You

text: "Weathering with You" was theatrically released in conventional, IMAX, and 4DX theaters in Japan on July 19, 2019, and was released in the United States on January 20, 2020. It received positive reviews, with praise for the animation, narrative, music, visuals, and emotional weight, although some reviewers were divided over perceived similarities to "Your Name". The film grossed US$193.8 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing Japanese film of 2019, and the seventh highest-grossing anime film of all time, unadjusted for inflation.


title: Weathering with You

text: The film won a number of awards, including being selected as the Japanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. It received four Annie Award nominations, including for Best Independent Animated Feature, tying "Spirited Away" and "Millennium Actress" (both 2001) for the most nominations for an anime film at the Annies (until it was surpassed by Hosoda's "Belle" (2021), with five nominations).


title: Weathering with You

text: In June 2021, first year high schooler Hodaka Morishima escapes Kōzu-shima in order to get away from his troubled home life to Tokyo. When his ferry to the city is hit by a rainstorm, he is saved by Keisuke Suga. As Hodaka becomes broke and struggles to find work, he meets Hina Amano, an employee of a McDonald's restaurant, who takes pity on him and gives him food. Hodaka later finds an abandoned Makarov PM handgun. Suga hires him as his assistant at a small occult magazine publishing company, there they investigate urban legends related to the unusually rainy weather in Tokyo. They hear the legend of "sunshine girls" who can control the weather. Hodaka sees Hina being intimidated into working at a club. He scares off the club owners by firing his gun into the air. Hina takes him to Yoyogi Kaikan, an abandoned building with a shrine on the roof, where he throws the gun away. Hina shocks him by demonstrating her ability to clear the sky by praying. Hina lives alone with her brother Nagi, and they have no adult guardian. Seeing how they are also in financial trouble, Hodaka proposes to start a business together: a job to clear the weather for events like weddings and parties. Their business becomes a success but when Hina is shown on television, their site gets flooded with requests so they decide to close.


title: Weathering with You

text: Police search for Hodaka, as his family filed a missing person report. They find Hodaka using the gun on a security camera. Officers arrive at Hina's apartment and interrogate her; Hina realizes that because they have no legal guardians, social services are going to separate her and Nagi. Suga, having also been visited by the police, fires Hodaka, explaining that police suspect him of kidnapping him. Hodaka, Hina and Nagi try to run away but are halted by the worsening weather. They take shelter in a hotel. Hina reveals that her body is slowly turning into water the more she uses her power. Bringing sunshine will cause her to disappear, although after that the weather will return to normal. The next morning, Hina has vanished and the rain has stopped. The police track Hodaka to the hotel. Nagi is sent to the children's counseling center and Hodaka to the police station. Having fallen in love with Hina, Hodaka decides to bring her back to Earth and escapes from custody with the help of Suga's niece Natsumi. The police surround Hodaka, but Suga, inspired by Hodaka's desperation to see Hina, helps him escape. At the rooftop shrine, Hodaka jumps through the shrine gate and is transported into the sky, where he finds Hina, insisting that she let go of her worries about the weather and start living for herself. As soon as they come back, Hina, Hodaka, Natsumi, Nagi, and Suga are all arrested, and the heavy rains resume. Hodaka is sentenced to a three-year probation and sent back home in Kōzu-shima.


title: Weathering with You

text: Three years later, the rain has been falling without end in Tokyo, submerging much of the city. In the spring of 2024, having finished his probation, Hodaka graduates from high school and returns to Tokyo to start college. He meets with Suga, who has expanded his business. Hodaka finds Hina praying on a street overlooking the drowned city, and they reunite.


title: Weathering with You

text: On August 2, 2018, Makoto Shinkai announced that he was making a new feature film that would be released the following year. The film staff included Masayoshi Tanaka as character designer, Atsushi Tamura as animation director and Hiroshi Takiguchi as art director. Shinkai tweeted about his admiration for Shikao Suga, and that he "borrowed" the last name for the character Keisuke Suga.


title: Weathering with You

text: In February 2017, plot development of "Weathering with You" began, and in April, character design and development started. In July, Shinkai began writing the script of the film. In August, setting development, location scouting and collecting information started. Storyboarding began in October. In May 2018, animation work began, while the development of the rain material in the film started in July. In August, cast audition was held, and art background work started in September. In October, the cast of two protagonists of the film was decided. On December 13, 2018, a press conference was held to reveal the film's first key visual and to announce that it would be released on July 19, 2019. Photoshooting for the film started in January 2019. The first trailer debuted on April 10, exactly 100 days before the premiere. Additional posters of the film and the second trailer was released on May 28. All work was completed by July 7, and the film was ready to be released.