Semiconductor devices are sensitive on temperature, and they produce a lot of heat
because of the high power density. Therefore thermal effects have high importance
in the operation of the semiconductor based microsystems. The thermal management has
key importance in the microsystem construction, however thermal effects has been treated
as parasitic phenomena until now. Recent research demonstrated that beside the electrical
signal the thermal signal can also be treated as logic variable. In order to get closer
to both the construction aspects and modeling questions of thermal-electronic devices
lateral thin film semiconductor devices were constructed by laser ablation (vanadium
dioxide, VO2) and cathode sputtering technology (Pt electrodes). The high temperature
sensitivity of semiconductor-metal transition (SMT) semiconductor resulted in promising
switching characteristics. A model was constructed and thermal-electric simulations
were performed; the results are in good correlation with the measurements validating
both the model and the explanation of the behavior.
