Steiner tree optimization for buffers. Blockages and bays

Buffer insertion is essential for achieving timing closure. This work studies buffer insertion under two types of constraints: (i) avoiding blockages, and (ii) inserting buffers into pre-determined buffer bay regions. We propose a general Steiner tree routing problem to drive this application and present a maze-routing based heuristic. We show that this approach leads to useful solutions on industry designs. © 2001 IEEE.