Modeling the Electro-Thermal Response of Thermally Isolated Micromachined Distributed Structures

Eran Socher, Ofir Bochobza-Degani, David Elata and Yael Nemirovsky
Dept. EE, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, IL

Keywords: Electro-thermal modeling, thermal runaway, burn-out, numerical scheme

Abstract:
This work analyzes the electro-thermal behavior of thermally isolated micromachined resistive structures. A novel numerical scheme for solving the coupled electro-thermal problem is suggested. The novel scheme can capture the thermal instabilities under both voltage and current control. The model is compared with experimental data showing good agreement.

NSTI Nanotech 2003 Conference Technical Program Abstract