Patent ID: 7923813

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a non-volatile memory cell having an anti-fuse connected to at least two terminals, the anti-fuse being programmable by applying a voltage across said terminals so as to change the resistance of the anti-fuse from a first, relatively high resistance representative of a first logical bit value to a second, relatively low resistance representative of a second logical bit value, the method comprising the step of forming a stack comprising a plurality of layers of materials including a first layer of a conductive material and a second layer of a conductive material with a layer of an insulative material therebetween; said second conductive material comprising a stable compound, said layer of the insulative material being such that the application of said voltage to said anti-fuse causes a localized breakdown of said insulative layer, the method further comprising the step of selecting said first and second layers of the conductive materials such that the heat created by said localized breakdown of said insulative material initiates an exothermic chemical reaction therebetween so as to generate a sufficient energy in said anti-fuse to change the state of at least a portion of one of said layers of said stack and create a stable short circuit between said terminals and reduce the resistance of said anti-fuse from said first, relatively high resistance to said second, relatively low resistance, wherein the anti-fuse further includes a layer of an amorphous phase change material provided between the terminals and positioned adjacent to the first and second layers of the conductive materials and the layer of the insulative material such that the layer of the amorphous phase change material directly contacts both the first and second layers of the conductive materials, wherein the amorphous phase change material is selected such that the energy generated in the anti-fuse as a result of the exothermic chemical reaction causes it to change to a conductive crystalline phase change material thereby creating a short circuit between the terminals.