Patent ID: 6928401

Claim:
A method for inserting repeaters when designing an integrated circuit to reduce signal propagation delays in the integrated circuit, comprising: (a) simulating a description of an electrical network responsive to a selectable factor that accounts for a non-ideal route in the description and a plurality of selectable parameters associated with respective conductive layers of the electrical network, wherein simulating comprises obtaining signal propagation delays associated with respective branches of said network to generate a first electrical network simulation; (b) generating a first graphical representation responsive to a time-varying signal applied to a respective circuit branch, the first graphical representation illustrating the signal propagation delays prior to the insertion of a repeater; (c) using a simultaneous path optimization system to identify an optimal position of at least one repeater in at least one branch in a second electrical network simulation based on the first electrical network simulation, the optimal position responsive to at least one selectable parameter selected from the group comprising an input signal slope, a ratio of p-type field-effect transistors to n-type field-effect transistors, a buffer ratio, a field-effect transistor size, a receiver input capacitance, and a delay value; (d) generating a second graphical representation responsive to the time-varying signal, the second graphical representation illustrating the signal propagation delays from the second electrical network simulation, wherein the first and second graphical representations reflect signal propagation delays for the respective circuit branch of said network from the first electrical simulation and the second electrical network simulation, respectively; and (e) presenting the first and second graphical representations in a manner that enables observation of the effect of signal propagation delays on an output signal that results from the time-varying input signal due to selectively locating the at least one repeater in the respective circuit branch of said network.