The research is in four areas of IC design theory: floor-planning, global routing, wirability theory, and point dominance. In floor- planning a generalized version of the module placement problem, where the modules can assume any shape is being developed. For global routing, a generalization of sequential methods to a method, which can handle all nets in 2-D (and higher dimension) arrays simultaneously, is under investigation. A layout model that generalizes the Lipski- Preparata wirability model to include 2 and 3 layer net routing and includes more detail is being analyzed. Point dominance is a new area which builds on and integrates results in graph theory relating to layout problems. Questions about k-chains and circular k-chains are being addressed.
