Scaling of thermal-electronic logic circuits

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 VO₂ thermal-electric switch. Different types (lateral and vertical) of VO₂ 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.