Programming architecture for a programmable integrated circuit employing antifuses

Claim 1

A programmable integrated circuit, comprising: a plurality of regions, each of the regions having a substantially identical structure, the structure comprising: a plurality of programming conductors, each of the programming conductors extending substantially parallel to one another in a first dimension; a plurality of wire segments, each of the wire segments extending substantially parallel to one another in a second dimension perpendicular to the first dimension; a plurality of programming transistors, each respective programming transistor having one electrode coupled to a corresponding respective one of the programming conductors and having another electrode coupled to a corresponding respective one of the wire segments; a plurality of antifuses, each respective antifuse being programmable to couple a respective wire segment in the structure to a corresponding respective wire segment in an adjacent one of the substantially identical structures, a wire segment and its corresponding wire segment in the adjacent substantially identical structure being substantially collinear with respect to one another; a plurality of control conductors, each control conductor extending in the second dimension, each respective one of the control conductors being coupled to gate electrodes of the programming transistors coupled to collinear wire segments; a first plurality of programming drivers coupled to selected ones of the programming conductors of one of the substantially identical structures B, all of the first plurality of programming drivers being disposed on one side of the control conductors of structure B; and a second plurality of programming drivers coupled to selected ones of the programming conductors of another of the substantially identical structures C, structure B being adjacent programming drivers being disposed on the opposite side of the control conductors of structure B from the first programming drivers, a programming conductor X in structure B being coupled to one of the first plurality of programming drivers but not being coupled to one of the second plurality of programming drivers, a programming conductor Y in the structure C corresponding with the programming conductor X in structure B being coupled to one of the second plurality of programming drivers but not being coupled to one of the first plurality of programming drivers.