Electric Fuses Research Articles

Solving the Inverse Design Problem of Electrical Fuse With Machine Learning

Electric fuses are protection devices with a long history. They are widely used in both high voltage and low voltage power systems. The pre-arc I-t (current versus time) characteristic is an important parameter of electric fuse. The traditional method of obtaining this parameter is designing the electrical fuse by experience, then conducting experiments to obtain the I-t characteristic. However, customers request specific of I-t characters first, and then the engineers have to design electric fuses based on the requirements, this is an inverse design problem of electric fuses. There is no research in this area yet. The objective of this paper is to propose a new method to solve the inverse design problem of electrical fuse with machine learning. The method contains two steps. First, finite element analysis is used to obtain training samples for machine learning. A total of 252 samples (pre-arc current-time result) are obtained by simulations. Second, an elastic network is used to solve the probabilistic inference model by utilizing 217 samples from the total of 252. The other 35 samples are used to evaluate inverse design problem solution results. The results show that this method can accurately predict the design parameters of the restricted zone of fuse element, including the thickness (T 1 ) and radius (R 1 ) of restricted zone. The average relative errors value of T 1 and R 1 are 15.7% and 3.4%, respectively. Increasing the penalty factor and elastic error decreases the relative error. By changing the penalty error to 0.8, the average relative errors value of T 1 and R 1 are reduced by 14.1% and 1.7%, respectively. By changing the elastic error to 0.8, the average relative errors value of T 1 and R 1 are reduced by 13.1% and 2.1%, respectively. The research results provide a new solution for the electrical fuse design problem.

Logic eFuse OTP 메모리 IP 설계

ABSTRACT In this paper, a logic eFuse (electrical Fuse) OTP (One-Time Programmable) memory IP (Intellectual Property) using only logic transistors to reduce the development cost and period of OTP memory IPs is designed. To secure the reliability of other IPs than the OTP memory IP, a higher voltage of 2,4V than VDD (=1.5V) is supplied to only eFuse links of eFuse OTP memory cells directly through an external pad FSOURCE coming from test equipment in testing wafers. Also, an eFuse OTP memory cell of which power is supplied through FSOURCE and hence the program power is increased in a two-dimensional memory array of 128 rows by 8 columns being also able to make the decoding logic implemented in small area. The layout size of the designed 1kb eFuse OTP memory IP with the Dongbu HiTek’s 110nm CIS process is 295.59㎛5 × 455.873㎛ (=0.134㎟). 키워드 : 로직 eFuse, OTP, 외부 프로그램 전압, 저면적 Key word : Logic eFuse, OTP, external program volta, small areaJournal of the Korea Institute of Information andCommunication Engineering

Thermal fatigue of electrical fuses

Electric Fuses have to respect different national or international standards such as IEC (International Electro-technical Commission) 269. These standards define the characteristics of the fuses and describe the tests to be run in order to check fuse's ability to take up their main functions, i.e. current-conduction and operation under overloads and short-circuits. But fuses never carry current neither operate under standardized conditions. For example, rated current is evaluated under specified ambient temperature, without cooling air-flow, and with 1 meter-long connection-cables on both sides. In the field, temperature can reach up 80 ∘ C, with or without air-flow and connection-parts are much more shorter. An issue is that current is never constant, often being cyclingly applied; equipments are frequently in use during the day and stopped in the night. ON-time and OFF-time generate alternative heating, then alternative stresses leading to thermal fatigue. MERSEN run many tests along the years, allowing to develop a method for choosing right fuses for each application. As a result, fuses don't melt unexpectedly in the field, but the method is supposed to be conservative and does not permit to get a better understanding of the phenomena neither an improvement of the products. The paper presents some specific ageing-tests run on conductive elements and tries to establish a correspondence between these tests and others carried out on complete fuses. Tests have been run on silver and copper, but their principle could be interesting for any structural material, especially because it underlines crack-opening.

Control Method for Electric Fuses with Controllable Fusing

In order to improve the electric fuse features, a new concept of controllable fusing has been patented. The controllable fusing means the possibility of fuse to operate at certain time moments when an external command is activated. The experimental set up has been built on the basis of a virtual instrument application. Using this instrument, there is the possibility to acquire the current waveform which flows through the fuse and set the current threshold when a command signal is provided in order to blow the fuse on the basis of controllable fusing effect. Actually, there is implemented the time-current characteristic of the new fuse, and depending on the application the moment of circuit interruption can be delayed. It results an adjusted new time-current characteristic for the fuse.Keywords: Electric Fuse, Control Method, Virtual Instrument

Control Method for Electric Fuses with Controllable Fusing

In order to improve the electric fuse features, a new concept of controllable fusing has been patented. The controllable fusing means the possibility of fuse to operate at certain time moments when an external command is activated. The experimental set up has been built on the basis of a virtual instrument application. Using this instrument, there is the possibility to acquire the current waveform which flows through the fuse and set the current threshold when a command signal is provided in order to blow the fuse on the basis of controllable fusing effect. Actually, there is implemented the time-current characteristic of the new fuse, and depending on the application the moment of circuit interruption can be delayed. It results an adjusted new time-current characteristic for the fuse.

Reliability Investigation of NiPtSi Electrical Fuse with Different Programming Mechanisms

The reliability of NiPtSi/p-poly Si electrical fuses with different programming mechanisms, i.e., electromigration and thermal rupture, was investigated in terms of fuse resistance stability and fuse array functionality for the 65-nm technology node. The resistance of the fuses programmed within the electromigration programming window was found to be very stable; resistance shift was only observed on fuses programmed in the underprogrammed mode, which results in incomplete electromigration. For fuses programmed with the thermal rupture mechanism, both resistance shift and functional sensing fails were observed. Furthermore, a guard band was defined for fuses programmed with an electromigration mechanism to ensure sufficient margins for fuse reliability. However, a guard band cannot be defined for fuses programmed with a rupture mode due to the unpredictable nature of the rupture programming mechanism. The unprogrammed fuse elements were shown to be stable through extensive reliability evaluations.

Reliability Investigation of NiPtSi Electrical Fuse With Different Programming Mechanisms

The reliability of NiPtSi/p-poly Si electrical fuses with different programming mechanisms, i.e., electromigration and thermal rupture, was investigated in terms of fuse resistance stability and fuse array functionality for the 65-nm technology node. The resistance of the fuses programmed within the electromigration programming window was found to be very stable; resistance shift was only observed on fuses programmed in the underprogrammed mode, which results in incomplete electromigration. For fuses programmed with the thermal rupture mechanism, both resistance shift and functional sensing fails were observed. Furthermore, a guard band was defined for fuses programmed with an electromigration mechanism to ensure sufficient margins for fuse reliability. However, a guard band cannot be defined for fuses programmed with a rupture mode due to the unpredictable nature of the rupture programming mechanism. The unprogrammed fuse elements were shown to be stable through extensive reliability evaluations.

Electric arcing burn hazards

The paper presents recent results in the area of high-power testing aimed at improving the safety of electrical staff working on live equipment. The driver for this work is the American Guide (IEEE 1584) on such exposure hazards, which has the potential for international adoption and, in the authors' opinion, does not provide a suitable methodology for assessing the hazard. A selection of results is presented, obtained in a high-power-system-supplied commercial test laboratory, using the latest charge-coupled device (CCD)-based high-speed video-recording methods. Results are reported for 415-V currents in the range of 1000-70 000 prospective root mean square (rms) amperes and for tests at 5000 V in the range of 1000-27 000 A. The impact of conventional protective devices is included together with some disturbing video results for circuit-breaker-protected systems. The major part of the material in this paper was first presented at the 7th International Conference on Electric Fuses and Their Applications, Jurata, Poland, in 2003.

Electric Fuses [Books and Reports

Electric Fuses [Books and Reports

Electric Fuses

Electric Fuses