Antifuse programmable element using ferroelectric material

摘要

An electrically programmable antifuse element using ferroelectric materials for the insulative dielectric layer, methods for producing same, and an integrated circuit applying a plurality of ferroelectric antifuse elements in a two dimensional matrix of rows and columns for use as a programmable logic device (PLD) or as a programmable read-only memory (PROM). A ferroelectric material is formed between two conductive electrodes to create a ferroelectric antifuse element. In an alternative embodiment, a plurality of chemically distinct materials is layered to form the dielectric layer. The combined application of an AC electric field and a DC electric field breaks down the ferroelectric material to form a low-resistance conductive filament. The synergy of the two electric fields permits programming antifuse elements of the present invention by applying DC electric fields as low as 2 volts amplitude. In the preferred embodiment, as compared to prior designs, antifuse devices of the present invention display higher resistivity in the unprogrammed state due to the high dielectric constant of ferroelectric materials and lower resistivity in the programmed state because the ferroelectric material breaks down into metal oxide conductive filaments. The resistivity of the conductive filament may be reduced further by the blending of materials through substitution rather than doping processes.