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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsClaude L. Bertin, Erik L. Hedberg, Max G. Levy, Timothy D. Sullivan, William R. Tonti
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A gap conductor structure for an integrated electronic circuit that may function as an electronic fuse device or as a low capacitance inter level signal line is integrated as part of the semi-conductor chip wiring. The gap conducting structure includes one or more air gap regions of predefined volume that fully or partially exposes a length of interlevel conductor layer in an IC. Alternately, the air gap region may wholly located within the dielectric region below a corresponding conductor and separated by insulator. When functioning as a fuse, the gap region acts to reduce thermal conductivity away from the exposed portion of the conductor enabling generation of higher heat currents in the conducting line with lower applied voltages sufficient to melt a part of the conducting line. The presence of gaps, and hence, the fuses, are scalable and may be tailored to the capacity of currents they must carry with the characteristics of the fuses defined by a circuit designer. Furthermore, conducting structures completely or partially exposed in the air gap may function as low capacitance minimum delay transmission lines.
An electronic fuse structure for an integrated circuit device including a semiconductor substrate, a dielectric layer formed atop said substrate, selected from the group consisting of SIO2, NO, ONO, Al2O3, or oxides of TA, and having at least one conductive interconnect level including a conducting layer embedded in said dielectric layer, said conducting layer having a length and width dimension, said fuse structure comprising:
An electronic fuse structure for an integrated circuit device including a semiconductor substrate, a dielectric layer formed atop said substrate, selected from the group consisting of SIO2, NO, ONO, Al2O3, or oxides of TA, and having at least one conductive interconnect level including a conducting layer embedded in said dielectric layer, said conducting layer having a length and width dimension, said fuse structure comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.