Positive temperature coefficient (PTC) material is a kind of thermo-sensitive material, using PTC resistors to replace the ordinary resistive materials as heating elements may become a new means of precise temperature control for electronic devices. In this paper, a novel PTC material with Curie temperature of 34 degrees C was prepared and the new thermal control method of combining PTC material with Proportional-Integ ral-Derivative (PID) control algorithm was proposed. The experimental system and mathematical model of PID temperature control by using PTC material were established. Based on this, the PID temperature control performance of PTC material was investigated with a comparison of ordinary resistance heater experimentally and theoretically. The results show that using PTC material for PID temperature control can effectively reduce overshoot; while the parameters of PID controller are within certain ranges, temperature control effects of PTC material are superior to ordinary heater, the temperature overshoot is reduced and the temperature control accuracy is increased. Furthermore, preparing PTC material with larger resistance-temperature coefficient may likely contribute to improve its PID temperature control effect. The research results specify possible directions for PID temperature control by using PTC materials in order to achieve precise thermal control of electronic devices. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.