Workflow for an electronic configurable prototyping system

A recently proposed rapid prototyping technology for electronic systems, which is based on a WSI active configurable circuit board comprising more than one million contact, can be programmed to interconnect integrated circuit packages deposited on its surface. This technology has some similarities, but also some key distinctive constraints when compared to conventional printed circuit boards. A workflow that supports the design with such configurable circuit boards is proposed. As part of this workflow, algorithms and tools for package recognition and for routing through a multi-dimensional mesh interconnection network is proposed and implemented. Results reported in this paper confirm the feasibility of the proposed workflow and several architectural choices made with respect to the configurable circuit board technology. Using the prototype tools reported in this paper, packages are successfully recognized and netlists are routed even though they use up to 50% of the contact point resources, which corresponds to an extremely dense circuit board.