A Detailed Qualitative Model for the Programming Physics of Silicided Polysilicon Fuses

This paper presents a detailed qualitative model for the programming physics of 90-nm silicided polysilicon fuses that is derived from a wide range of measurement data. These insights have led to a programming time of 100 ns, while achieving a resistance increase of times. This is an order of magnitude better than any previously published result for the programming time and resistance increase individually. Simple calculations and TEM-analyses substantiate the proposed programming mechanism. The insights explain the importance of the falling edge of the programming pulse. The advantage of a rectangular fuse head over a tapered fuse head is shown and explained. Polysilicon doping type is shown to have little influence on the programming result. Finally, the stability of fuses programmed with this method is shown to be very high. This paper is an extended version of a work published previously and provides a more detailed description of the programming physics, additional insight into the influence of the edges of the programming pulse, the effect of doping and the stability of the devices after programming.