The thermo-optic effect in the lateral-carrier-injection pin junction SOI ridge waveguide is analyzed according to the thermal field equation.Numerical analysis and experimental results show that the thermo-optic effect caused by carrier injection is significant in such devices,especially for small structure ones.For a device with a 1000μm modulation length,the refractive index rise introduced by heat accounts for 1/8 of the total effect under normal working conditions.A proposal of adjusting the electrode position to cool the devices to diminish the thermal-optic effect is put forward.