Claims
- 1. A process for fabricating an electrically alterable resistive component in an integrated circuit which includes a semiconductor substrate having a major surface and an insulating layer over said surface; said process including the steps of:
- forming a bottom electrical lead on said insulating layer;
- depositing and patterning a layer of electrically alterable material, which changes resistance irreversibly, such that the patterned electrically alterable material overlies and is coupled to said bottom lead;
- forming a top electrical lead which extends over and is there coupled to said electrically alterable material;
- limiting said electrically alterable material to consist of germanium, with or without dopant atoms; and,
- confining said electrically alterable material, from its deposition through a predetermined final step that completes said integrated circuit, to temperatures which cause said electrically alterable material to have a smaller crystalline grain size than that of polycrystalline germanium.
- 2. A process according to claim 1 and further including another step, after, said confining step, of applying a voltage across said bottom and top electrical leads with a magnitude that causes said germanium to switch irreversibly from an initial resistance between said leads to a reduced resistance.
- 3. A process according to claim 2 wherein said initial resistance is at least one thousand times larger than said reduced resistance.
- 4. A process according to claim 1 wherein said electrically alterable material includes dopant atoms which are selected from the group consisting of arsenic, phosphorous, and antimony.
- 5. A process according to claim 1 wherein said electrically alterable material includes no dopant atoms.
Parent Case Info
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/337,807 filed on Nov. 14, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,763, which is a Division of Ser. No. 08/133,479 filed Oct. 7, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,851, which is a Division of Ser. No. 08/009,372 filed Jan. 26, 1993 U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,722, which is a Continuation of Ser. No. 07/802,572 filed Dec. 5, 1991, now abandoned, which is a Division of Ser. No. 06/237,429 filed Feb. 23, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,256.
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Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4146902 |
Tanimoto et al. |
Mar 1979 |
|
4404581 |
Tam et al. |
Sep 1983 |
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4599705 |
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Divisions (4)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
337807 |
Nov 1994 |
|
Parent |
133479 |
Oct 1993 |
|
Parent |
09372 |
Jan 1993 |
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Parent |
237429 |
Feb 1981 |
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Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
802572 |
Dec 1991 |
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