초록

There is described a passive heater-and-diode multiplexing network for selective addressing of thermally-coupled and electrically-disconnected fuses within a passive device network (resistor/capacitor/inductor) or within an application circuit.

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1. A resistive-heater addressing network comprising: at least two pairs of heater-diode connections, each pair of heater-diode connections comprising: a first unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a first resistive-heater and at least one first diode connected together in series, said at

1. A resistive-heater addressing network comprising: at least two pairs of heater-diode connections, each pair of heater-diode connections comprising: a first unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a first resistive-heater and at least one first diode connected together in series, said at least one first diode directed in a first forward-biased direction;a second unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a second resistive-heater and at least one second diode connected together in series, said at least one second diode directed in a second forward-biased direction opposite from the first forward-biased direction;N nodes, where N is an integer >2, each one of the N nodes being connected to at least another one of the N nodes by one of the pairs of heater-diode connections, each resistive-heater of the network being individually addressable by applying a voltage difference across a pair of nodes. 2. The network of claim 1, wherein N*(N−1) unidirectional heater-diode connections are in the network, and wherein each node has N−1 pairs of heater-diode connections connected thereto. 3. The network of claim 1, wherein all of the unidirectional heater-diode connections are connected to a common node. 4. The network of claim 1, wherein all of the heater-diode connections comprise a same number of diodes per heater-diode connection. 5. The network of claim 1, wherein all of the resistive-heaters in the network have a substantially same resistance value. 6. The network of claim 1, wherein at least one of the resistive-heaters in the network is made of a substantially non-trimming material. 7. The network of claim 1, wherein at least one of the resistive-heaters in the network is thermally-isolated. 8. The network of claim 7, wherein thermal isolation is provided by a thermally-isolated microstructure on which the at least one of the resistive-heaters resides. 9. The network of claim 1, wherein the network is electrically equivalent from all of the N nodes when in its initial state. 10. The network of claim 7, wherein thermal isolation of all resistive-heaters is substantially the same. 11. The network of claim 1, wherein any current path other than a current path through a pair of heater-diode connections between a selected pair of nodes comprises at least two pairs of heater-diode connections. 12. The network of claim 1, wherein any current path other than a current path directly through an addressed resistive-heater dissipates less than half of the power which is dissipated in the addressed resistive-heater. 13. The network of claim 1, wherein any current path other than a current path directly through an addressed resistive-heater dissipates less than half of the power which is dissipated in the addressed resistive-heater, even after previous addressing events in the network. 14. A circuit comprising: a resistive-heater addressing network comprising N nodes, where N is an integer >1, at least one of the N nodes connected to at least another one of the N nodes by a pair of heater-diode connections, each pair of heater-diode connections comprising: a first unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a first resistive-heater and at least one first diode connected together in series, said at least one first diode directed in a first forward-biased direction; anda second unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a second resistive-heater and at least one second diode connected together in series, said at least one second diode directed in a second forward-biased direction opposite to said first forward-biased direction; andan application circuit electrically isolated from the resistive-heater addressing network comprising at least two fuses each thermally-coupled to one of said first and second resistive-heater. 15. The circuit of claim 14, wherein the application circuit comprises at least one of resistors, inductors and capacitors as passive devices. 16. The circuit of claim 14, wherein the application circuit comprises only passive elements. 17. The circuit of claim 14, wherein at least one fuse of the at least two fuses is electrically connected to at least one active element in the application circuit. 18. The circuit of claim 14, wherein at least one resistive-heater and at least one fuse are thermally-coupled to each other and thermally-isolated from surrounding components. 19. The circuit of claim 14, wherein at least one of the fuses in the application circuit is positioned to cause a modification to an interconnect line of the application circuit upon becoming open-circuit. 20. The circuit of claim 14, wherein at least one of the fuses in the application circuit is positioned to cause a modification to at least one of a resistance value, an inductance value, and a capacitance value of a portion of the application circuit by blowing the fuse. 21. A method for selectively addressing specific resistive-heaters from a resistive-heater addressing network, the method comprising: selecting a pair of nodes from the resistive-heater addressing network having N nodes, where N is an integer >1, at least one of the N nodes connected to at least another one of the N nodes by a pair of heater-diode connections, each pair of heater-diode connections comprising: a first unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a first resistive-heater and at least one first diode connected together in series, said at least one first diode directed in a first forward-biased direction; anda second unidirectional heater-diode connection comprising a second resistive-heater and at least one second diode connected together in series, said at least one second diode directed in a second forward-biased direction opposite to said first forward-biased direction; andapplying a potential difference across a selected pair of nodes to cause a current to flow in one of the first unidirectional heater-diode connection and the second unidirectional heater-diode connection in accordance with a polarity of the potential difference, thereby addressing a corresponding resistive-heater, while leaving N-2 remaining nodes in said network electrically floating. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein said applying a potential comprises dissipating power in one of the first resistive-heater and the second resistive-heater by passing an electric current therethrough, and transferring heat generated from the dissipated power to a corresponding fuse in an application circuit to blow the fuse. 23. The method of claim 21, wherein said transferring heat generated from the dissipated power to a corresponding fuse comprises modifying an interconnection in the application circuit by causing the fuse to become open-circuited. 24. The method of claim 21, wherein said transferring heat generated from the dissipated power to a corresponding fuse comprises modifying at least one of a resistance value, an inductance value, and a capacitance value of a portion of the application circuit by blowing the fuse. 25. The method of claim 21, wherein said applying a potential comprises applying the potential for a pre-determined amount of time. 26. The method of claim 21, wherein said applying a potential comprises open-circuiting a resistive-heater across the selected pair of nodes. 27. The method of claim 21, wherein said applying a potential comprises maintaining heating capability of a resistive-heater across the selected pair of nodes for a future addressing event.