Experimental determination of selfheating in silicon resistors operated at cryogenic temperatures

Selfheating effects (SH) in silicon resistors operated at cryogenic temperatures (4.2-80 K) are experimentally determined by measuring the difference between the ambient temperature (TA) and the silicon device temperature (TSi). It is observed that in resistors operating in the conduction state, even though TA = 4.2 K, TSi-may be as high as 30 K. This indicates that SH cannot be underestimated when characterizing and modeling silicon devices at cryogenic temperatures, operated above the minimum power required for having SH.