Physical Design Automation of FPGAs

Abstract

Despite advances in VLSI design automation, the time-to-market for a chip is unacceptable for many applications. The key problem is time taken due to fabrication of chips, and therefore there is a need to find new technologies, which minimize the fabrication time. Gate Arrays use less time in fabrication as compared to full-custom chips, since only routing layers are fabricated on top of pre-fabricated wafer. However, fabrication time for gate-arrays is still unacceptable for several applications. In order to reduce time to fabricate interconnects, programmable devices have been introduced, which allow users to program the devices as well as the interconnect. In this way all custom fabrication steps are eliminated.