Abstract :
The electronic system of the future will monitor itself, change the functions it performs, and repair its damaged circuits-all without external intervention. Such is the dream of autonomic computing. Although the dream is not yet reality, engineers and scientists at IBM Corp. have taken a big step with the development of an on-chip fuse that is electrically blown-or programmed, as the company prefers to call the process-by using a physical effect heretofore considered a serious reliability problem in semiconductor circuits. According to IBM, combining the new eFuse technology with already available on-chip built-in self-test and -repair circuitry will yield a chip capable of diagnosing its failures and then fixing them by blowing fuses to reroute its circuits.
Keywords :
built-in self test; electric fuses; electromigration; integrated circuit reliability; monolithic integrated circuits; semiconductor device reliability; eFuse technology; electric fuse; electrically programmable fuses; fault diagnosis; on chip fuse; self healing circuit; semiconductor circuit reliability; Circuits; Detectors; Fuses; Laboratories; Large Hadron Collider; Large-scale systems; Linear particle accelerator; Magnetic analysis; Switches; Voltage;
