ORIGINAL PAPER Analog/RF and Linearity Distortion Analysis of MgZnO/CdZnO Quadruple-Gate Field Effect Transistor (QG-FET) Yogesh Kumar Verma 1 & Varun Mishra 1 & Santosh Kumar Gupta 1 Received: 17 November 2019 /Accepted: 30 January 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract In this study, the authors propose a novel MgZnO/CdZnO Quadruple-Gate Field Effect Transistor (QG-FET). The analog/ RF and linearity distortion performance of the proposed QG-FET has been analysed and compared with conventional AlGaN/GaN QG-FET having identical physical dimensions. The performance parameters including drain current (I DS ), gate capacitance (C gs ), output-conductance (g d ), transconductance (g m1 ), transconductance generation factor (TGF), intrinsic-gain (dB), cut-off frequency (f T ), transconductance frequency product (TFP), first and second order derivatives of g m1 (i.e., g m2 and g m3 ), third order intermodulation distortion (IMD 3 ), third order input intercept point (IIP 3 ), and extrapolated input voltages (VIP 2 and VIP 3 ) have been calculated. The consequences of variations in physical parameters of proposed QG-FET viz., thickness of oxide layer (t ox ), channel length (CL), and doping concentration (N d ) on the analog/RF and linearity distortion parameters are analyzed and compared with conventional AlGaN/GaN QG-FET. It has been revealed that MgZnO/CdZnO QG-FET yields higher I DS , g m1 , TGF, intrinsic gain (dB), f T , and TFP than conven- tional AlGaN/GaN QG-FET with respect to different values of t ox , CL, and N d . Keywords MgZnO . CdZnO . AlGaN . GaN . Linearity . Distortion 1 Introduction The GaN based field effect transistors (FETs) have been explored extensively since the last decade [1–16] but pres- ently ZnO based devices are dominating due to their ex- citing features. ZnO comprises of excellent electronic and optoelectronic properties with direct energy bandgap of 3.37 eV and free exciton binding energy of 60 meV at 300 K, much higher than direct band gap (GaN: 3.36 eV) and free exciton binding energy (GaN: 21– 25 meV) of GaN at 300 K [17–21]. ZnO based structure inherits several merits over conventional GaN including higher saturation velocity and lower lattice mismatch [22, 23]; so these structures are being extensively used in the fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs), thin film transistors (TFTs), active matrix displays, transparent thin film transistors (TTFTs), solar cells, quantum spin transport devices, and photo-detectors [24, 25]. The for- mation of inversion charge due to polarization effects (spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization [26]) at the interface of MgZnO and ZnO leads to enhancement in the transport properties of the field effect transistor (FET) [27]. There exists a very high inversion charge (10 14 cm -2 ) in MgZnO/CdZnO heterostructures for low Mg compositions (≤ 0.15) in barrier layer, grown by dual ion beam sputtering technique (DIBS) [26]. Accordingly, a conductive path is formed at the interface of MgZnO and ZnO even when no gate voltage is applied due to the polarization effects [28]. The polarization effect is en- hanced with increased Mg composition in the MgZnO barrier layer and thus the charge density is also increased, leading to trade-off between ON and OFF current [29], i.e., the increased charge density with respect to Mg com- position leads to increment in ON current with detrimental * Yogesh Kumar Verma rel1607@mnnit.ac.in Varun Mishra rel1605@mnnit.ac.in Santosh Kumar Gupta skg@mnnit.ac.in 1 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj, UP 211004, India Silicon https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00406-4