Antifuse programmable element using ferroelectric material
US5463244A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 26, 1994 |
| Grant date | Oct 31, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 26, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01L2924/3011
- WIPO fieldSemiconductors
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An electrically programmable antifuse element using ferroelectric materials for the insulative dielectric layer, methods for producing same, and an integrated circuit applying a plurality of ferroelectric antifuse elements in a two dimensional matrix of rows and columns for use as a programmable logic device (PLD) or as a programmable read-only memory (PROM). A ferroelectric material is formed between two conductive electrodes to create a ferroelectric antifuse element. In an alternative embodiment, a plurality of chemically distinct materials is layered to form the dielectric layer. The combined application of an AC electric field and a DC electric field breaks down the ferroelectric material to form a low-resistance conductive filament. The synergy of the two electric fields permits programming antifuse elements of the present invention by applying DC electric fields as low as 2 volts amplitude. In the preferred embodiment, as compared to prior designs, antifuse devices of the present invention display higher resistivity in the unprogrammed state due to the high dielectric constant of ferroelectric materials and lower resistivity in the programmed state because the ferroelectric …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.