Patent ID: 7248529

Claim:
A semiconductor device comprising: a fuse element capable of being electrically broken down by flowing current therethrough, a first voltage being applied to one end of said fuse element; and a MOS type transistor having source, gate and drain terminals and a connection point between the other end of said fuse element and one of the source and drain terminals, a second voltage lower than the first voltage being applied to the other of the source and drain terminals, wherein: the first and second voltages, characteristics of said MOS type transistor and a resistance value of said fuse element are selected so that said fuse element can be broken down when a predetermined program voltage is applied to the gate terminal; and the resistance value of said fuse element is set to such a value as a voltage difference between a voltage at the connection point and the second voltage is lower than a drain voltage of said MOS type transistor at which a drain current starts saturating, when the program voltage is applied to the gate terminal.