Antifuse reliability and link formation models

Antifuse devices have been used for a variety of programmable circuits, and their application for high-performance, high density FPGA products is dramatically increasing. Attractiveness of antifuse stems from its relative small size, low ON resistance, and low OFF capacitance. Even though antifuses are conceptually simple structures, their behavior is not well understood. This report attempt to shed light into the link formation and reliability of antifuses. According to the models presented, link formation during programming is caused by melting and solidification of a-Si and portions of the electrodes. Furthermore, link switch-off failure is shown to occur at fixed voltage range caused by link melting. These models can be extended to the other types of antifuses as well.