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The pin redistribution problem in multi-chip modules

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Abstract

We introduce thepin redistribution problem (PRP), which arises from layout design ofmulti-chip modules. The problem is to redistribute the pins uniformly over the MCM substrate using a number of pin redistribution layers.

Pin redistribution is very important in MCM design because it has been used to not only provide a minimum spacing between signal wires in dense signal distribution layers, but also provide engineering change capability [3, 4]. Moreover, our experience [10] showed that the capacitive coupling noise between vias (one of the major problems in designing MCMs) induced by many layers (up to 63 layers) can be reduced using the pin redistribution technique.

The goal of the problem is to minimize the number of layers required to redistribute the entire set. As a net is undefined, a number of challenging issues arise. Three effective approaches are proposed for solving this problem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, 60208-3118, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jun Dong Cho & Majid Sarrafzadeh

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  1. Jun Dong Cho
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  2. Majid Sarrafzadeh
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Additional information

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant MIP-8921540.

This author was supported in part by a Samsung Electronics Fellowship.

A preliminary version of this paper appeared in theProceedings of the Fourth Annual IEEE International ASIC Conference and Exhibit, September 1991, pp. 9-2.1–9-2.4.

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Cho, J.D., Sarrafzadeh, M. The pin redistribution problem in multi-chip modules. Mathematical Programming 63, 297–330 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01582074

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01582074

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