CMOS

CMOS refers to Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor. It is a technology used for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in many digital logic circuits.

Frank Wanlass patented CMOS in 1967.

Two important characteristics of CMOS devices are high noise immunity and low static power consumption. Significant power is only drawn when the transistors in the CMOS device are switching between on and off states. Consequently, CMOS devices do not produce as much waste heat as other forms of logic. CMOS also allows a high density of logic functions on a chip. It was primarily for this reason that CMOS became the most used technology to be implemented in VLSI chips.

The phrase "metal–oxide–semiconductor" is used as a metal gate electrode placed on top of an oxide insulator, which in turn is on top of a semiconductor material.