FET confusion

[glebert]

OK, maybe I am just missing something, but I hate FETs because I find the nomenclature very confusing. Specific example that I am trying to understand today, depletion mode vs enhancement mode MOSFETs. I am fine with understanding the physics that go on in the semiconductor, but I can't figure out why specific devices aren't advertised as enhancement mode or depletion mode. The answers I've found is "look at the datasheet and if Id= blah when Vgs<blah then blah blah". That makes no sense to me. To me that is like saying "well, if you want to know if this BJT is PNP or NPN you need to look at the 2nd page of the datasheet in the fourth line of the second table and ...." Why don't they just state what type it is?

[TomCarlos]

Interesting question... I had to look it up.

Here is a video I found - NMOS vs PMOS and Enhancement vs Depletion Mode MOSFETs | Intermediate Electronics

[glebert]

The table shown in the video is helpful, as was the statement "none of us have ever used a depletion mode device."

I went to Mouser and there were 21,000 MOSFETs in the catalog and only 150 of those were depletion type, so maybe the answer is basically always assume enhancement type unless you come across an oddball implementation.

edit: apologies that sometimes I type "mode" when I really mean "type"

[TomCarlos]

And I went back into my (small) collection of FET datasheets and I could not find either "enhancement" or "depletion" anywhere.

[Jazz P Bass]

Clear as a bell after watching that video.
Thanks!