The most important characteristics of the MOS transistor operating in weak inversion are discussed. When the drain voltage is greater than a few

it is demonstrated that the drain current can be written as the product of the geometrical factor

, the minority carrier diffusion constant, and the inversion charge at the source. In the classical theory, the slope of the In I
Dversus V
Gcurve is only influenced by the capture of minority carriers by surface states. It is demonstrated that the N
ssvalues obtained from these current measurements are in disagreement with the values found by independent surface states measuring techniques.