Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus

Details Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus

1992-08-27

1994-03-08

Wieder, Kenneth A.

Electricity: measuring and testing

Impedance, admittance or other quantities representative of...

Lumped type parameters

324719, 257530, 3072021, 307465, 365 96, G11C 1716

Patent

active

052931331

ABSTRACT:
A method for determining an electrical characteristic (such as a resistance) of an antifuse of a programmable device. The method comprises the steps of: 1) before the antifuse is programmed, determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a first conductive path which includes a series element disposed electrically in series with a parallel element, the parallel element being controlled to be substantially conductive, the parallel element being disposed electrically in parallel with the unprogrammed antifuse; 2) after programming of the antifuse, determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a second conductive path including the series element disposed electrically in series with the programmed antifuse when the parallel element is controlled to be substantially nonconductive; 3) determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a third, conductive path through the series element, and through the programmed antifuse and the parallel element, the parallel element being controlled to be substantially conductive; and 4) determining the electrical characteristic (such as a resistance) of the antifuse based on the above three determinations in 1), 2) and 3). The method is usable to determine whether or not programmed antifuses of a programmable device have low enough resistances to meet desired reliability criteria.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4595875 (1986-06-01), Chan et al.
patent: 4651409 (1987-03-01), Ellsworth et al.
patent: 4698589 (1987-10-01), Blankenship et al.
patent: 4748490 (1988-05-01), Hollingsworth
patent: 4758745 (1988-07-01), El Gamal et al.
patent: 4783763 (1988-11-01), Bergman
patent: 4823181 (1989-04-01), Mohsen et al.
patent: 4857774 (1989-08-01), El-Ayat et al.
patent: 4873459 (1989-10-01), El Gamal et al.
patent: 4910417 (1990-03-01), El Gamal et al.
patent: 4933898 (1990-06-01), Gilberg et al.
patent: 4969124 (1990-11-01), Luich et al.
patent: 5008855 (1991-04-01), Eltoukhy et al.
patent: 5070384 (1991-12-01), McCollum et al.
patent: 5126282 (1992-06-01), Chiang et al.
patent: 5130777 (1992-07-01), Galbraith et al.
patent: 5140554 (1992-08-01), Schreck et al.
patent: 5166556 (1992-11-01), Hsu et al.
patent: 5187393 (1993-02-01), El Gamal et al.
patent: 5194759 (1993-03-01), El-Ayat et al.
patent: 5196724 (1993-03-01), Gordon et al.
Chiang et al, "Oxide-Nitride-Oxide Antifuse Reliability", IEEE; Cat. No. 90CH2787-O, pp. 186-192; Mar. 1990.
Handy, E., et al. "Dielectric Based Antifuse for Logic and Memory ICs", IEEE Aug. 1988, 786-IEDM 88, 4 pages.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method of determining an electrical characteristic of an antifus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-156358