US Patent Issued to International Business Machines on Feb. 10 for "Top via interconnect with an embedded antifuse" (Chinese, American Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,550,708, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to International Business Machines Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.).

"Top via interconnect with an embedded antifuse" was invented by Kenneth Chun Kuen Cheng (Shatin, Hong Kong), Koichi Motoyama (Clifton Park, N.Y.), Chanro Park (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and Chih-Chao Yang (Glenmont, N.Y.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An antifuse structure including a first metal line, a top via above and directly contacting the first metal line, a second metal line, and a conductive etch stop layer separating both the first metal line and the second metal line from an underlying layer, where a first portion of the conductive etc...