Layer assignment for printed circuit boards and integrated circuits

The layer assignment problem arises in printed circuit board (PCB) and integrated circuit (IC) design. It involves the assignment of interconnect wiring to various planes of a PCB or to various layers of interconnect wires in an IC. This paper reviews basic techniques for layer assignment in both PCBs and ICs. Two types of layer assignment are considered: (1) constrained layer assignment in which routing of interconnections is given and the objective is to assign wires to specific layers, and (2) unconstrained, or topological, layer assignment, in which both the physical routing of interconnections and assignment of the wires to layers is sought. Various objective functions, such as via minimization and minimization of signal delays through interconnect lines are discussed