Wiley G Gillmor

US Patent:

20060242614, Oct 26, 2006

Filed:

Apr 25, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/115042

Inventors:

Ken Wadland - Grafton MA, US
Richard Woodward - San Diego CA, US
Randall Lawson - Westford MA, US
Walter Katz - Boulder CO, US
Wiley Gillmor - Boulder CO, US

Assignee:

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. - San Jose CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/50

US Classification:

716012000

Abstract:

A method and system that converges on a global solution to a PCB routing problem using iterations of topology-based routing is described. In some embodiments, the geometric design space is abstracted into a topological graph representing the routing problem. Then, each net is allowed to find its optimal solution path independent of the solution paths for all other nets. The electrical and physical constraints of the system are initially ignored or greatly relaxed. Over each design iteration, the constraints are tightened until a complete, global, topological solution is found. Once a topological solution is found, it is converted into a geometric solution. In the event that no geometric solution exists for that topological solution, then the iteration process is resumed taking into consideration this additional information. The result is the ability to quickly autoroute highly-constrained PCB designs with minimal operator input.