Circuit Board Routing Research Articles

GPCB Routing: Generative Pre-Trained Transformers Based Printed Circuit Board Routing Method

GPCB Routing: Generative Pre-Trained Transformers Based Printed Circuit Board Routing Method

Algorithms for simultaneous escape routing and Layer assignment of dense PCBs

As die sizes are shrinking, and circuit complexities are increasing, the printed circuit board routing problem becomes more and more challenging. Traditional routing algorithms cannot handle these challenges effectively, and many high-end designs in the industry require manual routing efforts. This paper proposes a problem decomposition that distinguishes routing under dense components from routing in the intermediate area. In particular, it proposes an effective methodology to find the escape routing solution for multiple components simultaneously such that the number of crossings in the intermediate area is minimized. For this, the problem is modeled as a longest path with forbidden pairs problem, and two algorithms are proposed for it. The first is an exact polynomial-time algorithm that is guaranteed to find the maximal planar routing solution on one layer. The second is a randomized algorithm that has good scalability characteristics for large circuits. Then, these algorithms are used to assign the maximal subset of planar nets to each layer, and then the remaining nets are distributed at the end. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of these algorithms through experiments on industrial circuits.

Efficient routing algorithm

The line expansion algorithm provided by Heynes was a new kind of routing algorithm that took advantage of both Lee's algorithm and linear expansion algorithms, and hence was more efficient. However, it was less efficient in two layer routing situations. In this paper, this problem is analysed and several ways of solving it are proposed. Three criteria are provided in the paper, and these are used in the development of a modified line expansion algorithm. The modified algorithm is not only fast but also consumes less memory in two layer routing situations. Based on this algorithm, a Fortran printed circuit board routing system is built that can solve two layer routing problems with up to 2600 connection lines on a microcomputer with 64 kbyte RAM.

An Approximation Problem for the Multi-Via Assignment Problem

We consider the multi-via assignment problem for multilayered printed circuit board routing. An efficient approximation algorithm for this problem is presented. The algorithm is of (low) polynomial time complexity and guarantees solutions with no more than 3 * OPT via columns, where OPT is the number of via columns in an optimal solution. Several issues relating to the computational complexity of via and multi-via assignment problems are also discussed.

Printed Circuit Board Routing: A Survey

The circuit layout problem is an important and difficult problem of computer system design and is encountered in laying out subpackages (e.g. PCBs and integrated circuit masks), where the terminals of a set of components placed on a subpackage are to be interconnected by laying printed wires. The specific set of pins (i.e. terminals) to be made electrically common by printed wire constitutes a single net. Realization of multiple nets on the surface of the PCB is classically termed as ‘Interconnection Problem’ by Hightower (1974) which consists of five sub problems—(i) pin assignment, (ii) Steiner-tree identification for a net, (iii) layering of the wires, (iv) ordering and (v) physical identification of wire path on a PCB. An exhaustive survey on all these subproblems is available in the book edited by Breuer (1972) and survey papers of Hightower (1974), Bose (1977). In this paper, we concentrate on an up-to-date survey of the last sub problem (i.e. wire routing of PCBs). We group together the wire-routin...