Texas Instruments Corporation

Manjeri Krishnan

Raguram Damodaran

Sanjive Agarwala

Bryan David Sheffield

Duy-Loan T Le

Joel J Graber

Todd Beck

Electrical fuses (eFuses) are applied to the task of achieving very tightly controlled Input-Output (I/O) timing specifications. The I/O timing is made programmable and subject to adjustment as part of wafer probe testing. The techniques of parametric adjustment presented are based upon what is commonly referred to as clock skewing or clock tuning. The invention describes methods to select the clock skewing on a die-to-die basis based on functional testing with the actual parametric limits imposed on parameters of interest. The results associated with each die form the basis for hard-programming the selected clock skew value into the die via electrical fuses.

Process parameter based I/O timing programmability using electrical fuse elements

Electrical fuses (eFuses) are applied to the task of memory performance adjustment to improve upon earlier fuse techniques by not requiring an additional processing step and expensive equipment. Standard electrical fuse (eFuse) hardware chains provide a soft test feature wherein the effect of memory slow-down can be tested prior to actually programming the fuses. Electrical fuses thus provide a very efficient non-volatile method to match the logic-memory interface through memory trimming, drastically cutting costs and cycle times involved.

Electrical fuse control of memory slowdown

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

Manjeri Krishnan