A double-layer placement algorithm for integrated circuit-based modules on printed circuit board

TL;DR

This paper introduces a double-layer placement algorithm for PCB modules, combining global and pin-oriented placement strategies to optimize wirelength and meet design requirements.

Contribution

It presents a novel mixed-variable optimization approach with tailored algorithms for both top-layer and bottom-layer placement problems.

Findings

Optimized total wirelength in PCB placement.

Effective top-layer placement with centralized strategies.

Pin-oriented placement results meet design requirements.

Abstract

Considering that the physical design of printed circuit board (PCB) follows the principle of modularized design, this paper proposes an automatic placement algorithm for functional modules. We first model the placement problem as a mixed-variable optimization problem, and then, developed tailored algorithms of global placement and legalization for the top-layer centralized placement subproblem and the bottom-layer pin-oriented placement subproblem. Numerical comparison demonstrates that the proposed mixed-variable optimization scheme can get optimized total wirelength of placement. Meanwhile, experimental results on several industrial PCB cases show that the developed centralized strategies can well accommodate the requirement of top-layer placement, and the pin-oriented global placement based on bin clustering contributes to optimized placement results meeting the requirement of pin-oriented design.