Study of Electrically Programmable Fuses through Series of I-V Measurements

Electrically programmable fuses (e-fuse) (Alavi, 1997) with Ni-silicided poly-Si filament fabricated on four dopant conditions were studied through two successive I-V measurements. The initial I-V sweeps can change e-fuses into targeted programmed states and display the whole programming processes where the currents change in many orders of magnitude. The second I-V curves can show the stabilities and conductions in the programmed states on both bias polarities. The programming processes in quasi-programmed states before properly programming were found to be strongly dependent on the dopant conditions. And at least two or three properly programmed states were identified among properly programmed states in terms of the characteristic spreads of the final resistance and the conduction behaviors. The most distinctive currents after properly programming are similar to those in varistors. The stability in every programmed state turned out to be dependent strongly on the dopant conditions