Arcsys, Inc.

Lu Chung

Yuh-Zen Liao

Kaiwin Lee

Stephen Wuu

Chin-Hsen Lin

An electronic design automation tool embodiment of the present invention comprises a five step process. In a first step, for each pin-master of arbitrary shape in a cell-master a pin access direction is identified, a region in which placing a via will connect a pin to a metal layer, and cause no design rule violation to other pin-masters, is physical bounded on the surface of a chip. Such a region is defined to be a 'via-region' of the pin-master. In a second step, at least one 'via-spot' within each via-region is identified that violates no design rules if vias are placed at these points. In a third step, vias are placed on each cell instance according to their via-spots. In a fourth step, a 'maze-routing' is done to connect the neighboring same net pins by metal-1. In a fifth step, the vias on the pins connected by the maze-router are removed, leaving only one via on a pin if the connection for a current net is not complete.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Lu Chung