Tantalum-Nitride Antifuse Electromechanical OTP for Embedded Memory Applications

Embedded nonvolatile memory (NVM) integrated in the back-end of line processes are of high interest, particularly for rugged environments (high temperature/radiation or vibration). This letter demonstrates the use of tantalum nitride microbeams as antifuse one-time programmable (OTP) NVM. It needs a single mask process and can be integrated above an integrated circuit. Typical fusing current is 1 mA, operating voltage is 4 V, and the measured contact resistance is <;2 kQ. A hybrid one-transistor/one microbeam/bit memory array is proposed for back-end compatible and low-cost OTP NVM integration.