A Novel Cu Electrical Fuse Structure and Blowing Scheme Utilizing Crack-Assisted Mode for 90-45nm-Node and Beyond

This paper presents the redundancy technology that uses Cu wiring as electrical fuse (e-fuse) for the first time. The novel e-fuse employs "crack-assisted mode" to blow fuse-material (Cu wire). Because Cu wiring is used instead of gate poly electrode material, the technology is extendible from the present 90nm~65nm technology-node to a few generations beyond 45nm-node, where Cu wiring is still likely to be employed. This e-fuse technology achieves very high reliability of less than 0.001ppm defective rate. High stability of this new e-fuse has been proven with actual 90nm generation products