Filament formation and the final resistance modeling in amorphous-silicon vertical programmable element

Recent results on an amorphous-silicon vertical programmable element (PEL) made by ion implantation of single crystal silicon are presented. This device has already been demonstrated in 4 K and 16 K memory designs and EPGAs. It can be incorporated within conventional PMOS, NMOS, CMOS, bipolar, and BiCMOS designs. Its preprogrammed resistance exceeds 10⁷ Ω, while its postprogrammed resistance can be 1 kΩ or lower. The ion-implanted programmable element (IPEL) and other vertical fuses offer unique features like a long retention time at elevated temperatures and very small footprint. They can be scaled down to nanoelectronics circuits with functional density exceeding 10⁹ devices/cm²