The thermal-electric logic circuit (TELC) concept is a possible way to overcome the
scaling down problems of the conventional CMOS integrated circuits having very complex
structure nowadays. The basic component of the TELC is the metal-insulator transition
(MIT) switch, which is an extremely simple bulk type device. This work evaluates the
effect of the scaling down on the speed of the VO 2 thermal-electric switch. Different
types (lateral and vertical) of VO 2 resistors have been produced by laser ablation.
The measured switching time strongly correlates with the characteristic size of the
device. The energy consumption (power-delay product) of the scaled-down switching
device estimated as a sum of the energy needed for heating the thermal diffusion length
sized environment of the device, heating the device itself and the latent heat of
phase transition of VO2.
