Reliability investigations on the programming currents of 28nm metal e-Fuse

The reliability performance of 28nm metal e-Fuse programmed with different current is investigated. High temperature stress (HTS) or temperature cycling (TC) may cause the shift of metal-e-fuse element resistance and shape. In this paper, we find that 28nm metal e-Fuse programming with low current reliability performance is more stable than metal e-Fuse programming with high current; Resistance shift was only observed on fuses programmed in the over-programmed mode. In addition, the SEM profile of metal e-Fuse programming with low current is obviously better than high current SEM profile.