Research Article Study of the Photo- and Thermoactivation Mechanisms in Nanoscale SOI Modulator Yaakov Mandelbaum, 1 Ariel Zev, 1 Avraham Chelly, 2 Zeev Zalevsky, 3 and Avi Karsenty 1 1 Lev Academic Center, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Applied Physics/Electro-Optics Engineering, 9116001 Jerusalem, Israel 2 Semiconductor Devices Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel 3 Department of Electro-Optics, Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel Correspondence should be addressed to Avi Karsenty; karsenty@jct.ac.il Received 5 July 2016; Revised 25 September 2016; Accepted 14 February 2017; Published 8 March 2017 Academic Editor: Francesco Dell'Olio Copyright © 2017 Yaakov Mandelbaum et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A new nanoscale silicon-based modulator has been investigated at diferent temperatures. In addition to these two advantages, nanoscale dimensions (versus MEMS temperature sensors) and integrated silicon-based material (versus polymers), the third novelty of such optoelectronic device is that it can be activated as a Silicon-On-Insulator Photoactivated Modulator (SOIPAM) or as a Silicon-On-Insulator Termoactivated Modulator (SOITAM). In this work, static and time dependent temperature efects on the current have been investigated. Te aim of the time dependent temperature simulation was to set a temporal pulse and to check, for given dimensions, how much time would it take for the temperature profle and for the change in the electrons’ concentration to come back to the steady state. Assuring that the thermal response is fast enough, the device can be operated as a modulator via thermal stimulation or, on the other hand, can be used as thermal sensor/imager. We present here the design, simulation, and model of the second generation which seems capable of speeding up the processing capabilities. Tis novel device can serve as a building block towards the development of optical/thermal data processing while breaking through the way to all optic processors based on silicon chips that are fabricated via typical microelectronics fabrication process. 1. Introduction 1.1. Silicon-Based Devices for Optoelectronic Modulation. Nanoscale silicon-based optoelectronic devices are under investigation and development for more than two decades. Te interest for coupling both electronic and optic behaviors is very high, since such devices can be integrated in a smooth way inside the circuits of the existing microelectronics indus- try [1–3]. Te constantly growing use of real time computing generates constant urge for much faster processors than those which are currently available in the market. Correspondingly there is an accelerated development of new optics commu- nication related applications and components. Te efort to combine those two trends leads to the generation of new optoelectronic nanodevices. Such hybrid devices may allow high operation speed, reduced cross talk and other noises, and low operation power and obviate the need for the existing electrooptical convertors. Te need for nanoscales devices, coupling both electrical and optical properties, is constantly growing; in particular the need to develop silicon photonics capabilities towards future optical communication between blocks and chips is more than desirable. In this perspective, several types of hybrid devices are developed. Part of them are light emitting devices when the activation is electrical, for example, elec- troluminescence based devices [4–6], and part are receptor devices [7–10] such as the SOIPAM nanoscale improved device, in which the modulation control command is optic, as previously reported [11–13]. Additional investigations and simulations brought some breakthrough in this modulator, when it appears that thermal activation is also possible. We present here a dual-mode device: SOITAM (Silicon- On-Insulator Termoactivated Modulator) and SOIPAM (Silicon-On-Insulator Photoactivated Modulator), as, respec- tively, presented in Figures 1 and 2. Hindawi Journal of Sensors Volume 2017, Article ID 9581976, 11 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/9581976