CMOS RESISTIVE FUSES FOR IMAGE SMOOTHING AND SEGMENTATION

A two-terminal nonlinear element called a resistive fuse is described. Its application in image smoothing and segmentation is explained. Two types of CMOS resistive fuses were designed, fabricated, and tested. The first implementation employs four depletion-mode NMOS and PMOS transistors, occupying a minimum area of 30-mu-m x 38-mu-m. The second implementation uses 7 or 11 standard enhancement-mode transistors on an area of 75-mu-m x 100-mu-m or less. Individual resistive-fuse circuits have been fabricated and tested and their functionality has been demonstrated. A one-dimensional network of 35 resistive fuses using the 11-transistor implementation was also fabricated in a standard CMOS process. Experimental results indicate that the network is capable of smoothing out small variations in image intensity while preserving the edges of objects.