A FAST ALGORITHM FOR MINIMIZING THE ELMORE DELAY TO IDENTIFIED CRITICAL SINKS

A routing algorithm that generates a Steiner route for a set of sinks with near optimal Elmore delay to the critical sink is presented. The algorithm outperforms the best existing alternative for Elmore-delay-b ased critical sink routing, With no critical sinks present, the algori thm produces routes comparable to the best previously existing Steiner router, Since performance-oriented layout generators employ iterative techniques that require a large number of calls to the routing algori thm for layout evaluation, a fast algorithm for routing is desirable, The algorithm presented here has a fast (O(n(2)), where n is the numbe r of points) and practical implementation using simple data structures and techniques.