Patent ID: 7528646

Claim:
A method for sensing a state of an electrically programmable fuse comprising the steps of: turning on a first current source, thereby producing a first current; turning on a second current source, thereby producing a second current; turning on a first switch, thereby passing the first current through an electrically programmable fuse, producing an electrically programmable fuse voltage at a first node; turning on a second switch, thereby passing the second current through a reference resistance, producing a reference voltage at a second node; and at a latching time, logically combining a first signal and a second signal, the second signal not switching at the same time as the first signal, thereby producing one or more signals timed for simultaneously performing the steps of: turning off the first current source and the second current source; and opening the first switch and the second switch; and latching a value in a latching circuit responsive to a difference between the electrically programmable fuse voltage and the reference voltage.