Electro-thermal simulations of beyond-CMOS vanadium dioxide devices and oscillators

Vanadium dioxide ( VO_2 ) devices undergo a thermal insulator-metal-transition by current or voltage injection. In this work, we utilize a dedicated Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) modeling approach to simulate thermal-induced resistive switching effects in VO_2 devices. In particular, we investigate how the heat dissipation modulates the VO_2 device behavior. We employ a mixed-mode Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE)—TCAD approach to simulate the relaxation oscillator circuit based on VO_2 device, and we show the entangled self-oscillatory behavior of temperature and voltage across the device. Our findings provide essential guidelines for the design of VO_2 oscillators to be exploited to realize oscillatory neural networks circuits for neuromorphic computing. Graphical Abstract