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US 6,285,238 B1Granted
Electrically programmable fuse
AssigneeVanguard International Semiconductor Corporation
InventorShu-Fang Wu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In this invention is described an electrically programmable fuse that uses a floating gate to control the fuse action. The activation of the fuse can be done at any time during the life of the product containing the fuse. By programming a charge onto the floating gate an active transistor is made to conduct or not to conduct. The fuse can be reused by re-programming the fuse to the previous state. Different states of the fuse which represent product options can be obtained by programming appropriate voltage levels.
Claims5
A programmable electronic fuse, comprising:
- a) a floating gate connecting a transistor to a semiconductor device,
- b) said semiconductor device comprising a P+ diffusion in an N well,
- c) said transistor an N-channel device,
- d) said transistor being on or off depending upon a charge on the floating gate,
- e) said fuse programmable by changing the charge on the floating gate induced by a voltage applied to said N well and said P+ diffusion.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.