Patent ID: 7266797

Claim:
A method of placing a plurality of power gating switches within a voltage island of an integrated circuit, the method comprising: a. placing a power gating switch at each one of a plurality of physical locations within the voltage island, the voltage island comprising a power distribution network; b. calculating the minimum number of power gating switches required to satisfy a specification of electrical constraints; c. performing an electrical analysis on the voltage island to determine whether the minimum number of power gating switches calculated in the previous step satisfies the specification of electrical constraints; d. reporting a location on the integrated circuit of a violation of the electrical constraints from the electrical analysis step; e. placing an additional power gating switch in close proximity to the location of where a violation was detected to provide additional current; f. iterating steps c through e above until no violations are reported or a determination is made that the electrical constraints cannot be satisfied; and sorting the power gating switches in decreasing order of a total current supplied if no violations are reported after a first iteration; removing a power gating switch corresponding to the last entry of the sort in the previous step and iterating steps c through f; and concluding the method steps after two or more iterations when a placement is found that satisfies the electrical constraints.