Optically and electrically programmable silicided polysilicon fuse device
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorChandrasekharan Kothandaraman
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Abstract
A silicided polysilicon based fuse device that is programmable by optical and electrical energy in the polysilicon layer without damage to nearby structures, comprising: a Si substrate; an insulating layer disposed on the substrate; and a fuse device section comprising poly-Si/a silicide/ and a barrier layer, the fuse device section forming an electrical discontinuity in the poly Si layer in response to an electrical pulse or an optical pulse applied to it.
Claims17
A method of programming selected ones of a multiplicity of fuse devices comprising the steps of:
- providing said multiplicity of programmable fuse devices having a first resistance, each of said multiplicity including a section comprising a combination of a poly silicon layer covered by a suicide layer, and a barrier layer covering said combination, said barrier layer suitable for transmitting an optical beam therethrough;
- directing an optical beam through said barrier layer and onto said silicide layer of at least one of said multiplicity of programmable fuse devices;
- and
- programming said at least one programmable fuse device without rupturing said combination by increasing the resistance of said at least one programmable fuse device from said first resistance to a second resistance in response to said optical beam being directed onto said silicide layer, wherein said optical beam is in the visual range.
A method of programming selected ones of a multiplicity of fuse devices comprising the steps of:
- providing said multiplicity of programmable fuse devices having a first resistance, each of said multiplicity including a section comprising a combination of a poly silicon layer covered by a suicide layer, and a barrier layer covering said combination, said barrier layer suitable for transmitting an optical beam therethrough;
- directing an optical beam through said barrier layer and onto said silicide layer of at least one of said multiplicity of programmable fuse devices;
- and
- programming said at least one programmable fuse device without rupturing said combination by increasing the resistance of said at least one programmable fuse device from said first resistance to a second resistance in response to said optical beam being directed onto said silicide layer, wherein said optical beam is in the NIR (near infrared) range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.