How to test MOSFET transistor

Luis Burgos' video demonstrates the basic features of N- and P-channel MOSFETs (MOSFET is an abbreviation for metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) and illustrates how to perform transistor testing. To make simple test you do not need sophisticated equipment but only required is usual multimeter with diode-test range, for example, APPA-82 or similar. Each electronic engineer should have that, hope and you.

So, N- and P-channel MOSFETs has three pinouts : gate (G), drain (D) and source (S). Here steps to transistor testing:

1. Hold transistor for a plastic package. Be careful - do not to touch the pinouts by hands or clothing, as they may draining static electricity wich can damage the MOSFET.

2. Connect negative probe to the Source pin of MOSFET.

3. Touch positive probe to Gate pin of MOSFET. The multimeter should be switched to diode-test mode.

4. Now connect the positive probe to Drain output. This charges internal capacitance of p-n gate and transistor moves to the turned-on mode. Multimeter will show low-level signals.

5. With the pisitive probe still connected to the Drain, touch a finger to the Source and Gate. The internal capacitance will be discharged through your body and multimeter's signal should go high, indicating a non-conductive device.

Well, everything works and your transistor is good.

Should you need to test the transistor more carefully and check cut-off voltage, it would be necessary to make more complex testing circuit, as will be discussed in the next time.