Steiner tree optimization for buffers, blockages, and bays

Abstract

Buffer insertion is essential for achieving timing closure. This work studies buffer insertion under two types of constraints: (i) avoiding blockages, and (ii) inserting buffers into pre-determined buffer bay regions. We propose a general Steiner tree routing problem to drive this application and present a maze-routing based heuristic. We show that this approach leads to useful solutions on industry designs.