An electronic fuse is a permanent, on-chip structure that can be blown by driving a high current through it during manufacturing or in the field. Blowing the fuse changes its resistance, permanently locking a logic state. Chipmakers use them to store encryption keys, disable defective memory blocks, or hard-code a device's operating parameters so they cannot be altered by software exploits.
Heard on the job
We need to blow the eFuses on the prototype batch to lock out the JTAG debug ports before shipping them to the client.
Also heard as
- electronic fuse