Michael R. Ouellette

An on-chip self-repair calculation and fusing methodology

Laser fusing is a standard technique for improving yield with memory reconfiguration and repair, but implementing fusing in production can be challenging and costly. This article introduces an electrically programmable polysilicon fuse and shows how it can reduce fuse area and programming complexity.

On-chip repair and an ATE independent fusing methodology

This paper describes a novel on chip repair system designed for ATE independent application on many unique very dense ASIC devices in a high turnover environment. During test, the system controls on chip built-in self-test (BIST) engines, collects and compresses repair data, programs fuses and finally decompresses and reloads the repair data for post fuse testing. In end use applications this system decompresses and loads the repair data at power-up or at the request of the system.

Shared fuse macro for multiple embedded memory devices with redundancy

Customers designing increasingly complex integrated circuits are turning to ASIC vendors to help bring their products to market faster than their competitors. ASIC designs with large amounts of embedded memory must use fuse-enabled redundancy techniques to maintain price competitive yield. IBM has developed a data compression and shared fuse technique to accommodate large numbers of redundant elements in an ASIC. This technique minimizes or eliminates problems associated with a large number of fuses distributed within many embedded memories on an ASIC.