Thermal Analysis of Thin Film and Semiconductor Device Structures

An important but often neglected part of the design of many microelectronic devices (hybrid and integrated), is the thermal analysis and performance of the devices. Decreasing geometries, novel device designs, new materials and increased speeds of operation can introduce thermal effects which may adversely influence device performance. This paper describes the use of a commercial software package to analyse thermal effects in two different types of device - a thin film resistor array and a laser diode. The influence of the thermal properties of various semiconductor materials and microelectronic metallizations is illustrated here for both transient and steady state cases.