We provide theoretical and simulation analysis of the small signal response of SiO 2 /AlGaN/GaN metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) capacitors from depletion to spill over region, where the AlGaN/SiO 2 interface is accumulated with free electrons. A lumped element model of the gate stack, including the response of traps at the III-N/dielectric interface, is proposed and represented in terms of equivalent parallel capacitance, C p , and conductance, G p . C p -voltage and G p -voltage dependences are modelled taking into account bias dependent AlGaN barrier dynamic resistance R br and the effective channel resistance. In particular, in the spill-over region, the drop of C p with the frequency increase can be explained even without taking into account the response of interface traps, solely by considering the intrinsic response of the gate stack (i.e., no trap effects) and the decrease of R br with the applied forward bias. Furthermore, we show the limitations of the conductance method for the evaluation of the density of interface traps, D it , from the G p /x vs. angular frequency x curves. A peak in G p /x vs. x occurs even without traps, merely due to the intrinsic frequency response of gate stack. Moreover, the amplitude of the G p /x vs. x peak saturates at high D it , which can lead to underestimation of D it . Understanding the complex interplay between the intrinsic gate stack response and the effect of interface traps is relevant for the development of normally on and normally off MIS high electron mobility transistors with stable threshold voltage. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

In atomic force microscopes (AFM) a resonantly excited, micro-machined cantilever with a tip is used for sensing surface-related properties. When targeting the integration of AFMs into vacuum environments (e.g., for enhancing the performance of scanning electron microscopes), a tuneable Q-factor of the resonating AFM cantilever is a key feature to enable high speed measurements with high local resolution. To achieve this goal, in this study an additional mechanical stimulus is applied to the cantilever with respect to the stimulus provided by the macroscopic piezoelectric actuator. This additional stimulus is generated by an aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin film actuator integrated on the cantilever, which is driven by a phase shifted excitation. The Q-factor is determined electrically by the piezoelectric layer in a Wheatstone bridge configuration and optically verified in parallel with a laser Doppler vibrometer. Depending on the measurement technique, the Q-factor is reduced by a factor of about 1.9 (electrically) and 1.6 (optically), thus enabling the damping of MEMS structures with a straight-forward and cheap electronic approach.

When targeting the integration of atomic force microscopes (AFM) into vacuum environments (e.g., scanning electron microscopes), a tunable Q-factor of the resonating AFM cantilever is a key feature to enable high speed measurements with high local resolution. To achieve this goal, an additional stimulus is applied to the cantilever with respect to the mechanical stimulus provided by the macroscopic piezoelectric actuator. This additional stimulus is generated by an aluminium nitride based piezoelectric actuator integrated on the cantilever, which is driven by a phase shifted excitation. With this approach, the mechanical Q-factor measured with a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) in vacuum is electrically decreased by a factor of up to 1.7.