Simulation of transient thermal response in semiconductor bridges integrated with nanoenergetic multilayer films

To investigate the mechanism by which nanoenergetic multilayer films (nEMFs) enhance the ignition performance of semiconductor bridge (SCB), a three-dimensional, fully coupled thermoelectric finite element model is established. This model accounts for the temperature dependence of material properties and integrates a thin-film reaction kinetics model to describe the solid-state exothermic reaction of the nEMFs under nanosecond-scale electro-thermal excitation. Simulation results reveal a significant “thermal acceleration” effect from the nEMFs, substantially shortening the ignition delay time and greatly increasing the peak temperature compared to a standalone SCB device under the same excitation time. The study further reveals that the core enhancement mechanism lies in the ultrahigh power density released by the nEMFs, which is sufficient to overwhelm the absorption rate of silicon’s latent heat of fusion. This dramatically accelerates the phase transition process and avoids the temperature plateau characteristic of conventional SCB. This mechanism enables the formation of a larger high-temperature molten zone within an extremely short period, creating ideal initial conditions for subsequent efficient plasma generation.