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US 6,611,165 B1Granted
Antifuse circuit with improved gate oxide reliabilty
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsScott J. Derner, Casey R. Kurth
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsScott J. Derner, Casey R. Kurth
Estimating the term…
An apparatus and method for improving the gate oxide reliability of an antifuse circuit is provided by coupling the gate input of a protection device of the antifuse circuit to a voltage converter circuit. In a program mode, a first voltage is applied through the voltage converter circuit to the gate input of the protection device to limit the voltage passed to internal transistor devices, thus increasing their gate oxide reliability. In a normal operation mode, however, a second, lower voltage is applied through the voltage converter to the gate input of the protection device to remove the large voltage stress placed across the gate oxide of the protection device itself. The voltage converter may attenuate the first voltage to create the second voltage or it may switch its output between the first and second voltage levels.
An antifuse circuit comprising:
A computer system comprising computer circuitry, the computer circuitry comprising:
A method of improving the gate oxide reliability in an antifuse circuit including an antifuse and a protection device coupled between the antifuse and at least one transistor, the method comprising:
A method of improving the gate oxide reliability in an antifuse circuit including an antifuse coupled to a switching device, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.