Ultra-thin oxide breakdown for OTP development in power technologies

OTP (One Time Programmable) memory in power technology enables electrical performance optimization together with area occupation reduction. In this paper, the aspects relative to the oxide breakdown (which is the key mechanism for memory programmability) are studied and applied to the development of an antifuse OTP cell in a 350 nm-CMOS power technology. The physical analysis of the degradation phases of an oxide layer is presented together with the physical models, exploited to foresee the device time-to-breakdown depending on applied voltage, oxide thickness etc. The achieved results are used in the development and reliable implementation of OTP cells in the target 350 nm-CMOS node.