A theoretical self-consistent thermoelectric model has been developed for optimal thermal design in the self-signal processing infraed detectors. The model is achived by employing the coupled thermoelectric equation which allows which allows the simultaneous investigation of the termal and electrical aspects of device behavior. The thermal limitation of detectivity and responsivity are determined by the enegy gap, carrier concentration, lifetime, and mobility as a function of the temperature. The calculated results indicate that the detectivity is decreased at bias fields above about 50 V/cm, because the performence is limiting by temperature when the bias voltage reached the level associated with Joule heating. It has been also found that the improvement in the mid-band modulation transfer function(MTF) may be restricted by increasing the bias fields. Further, the important paramerers in the thermal optimization of SPIR detector, such as temperature in the device, ambipolar velocity, element thickness and length, are also considered. The analytical study provides a mathematical basis for optimal design of such a photoconductive IR detector and the agreement between the experimental and theoretical results are seen to be good.