An application of physical methods to the computer aided design of electronic circuits

Methods and algorithms used in simulations of physical phenomena are applied to the automated design of integrated or printed circuits. Representative results, obtained by these algorithms, are presented. They show that the design of the layout of an integrated circuit may be viewed as a transition from a disordered state to a partially ordered state; this comparison leads to an efficient method allowing an optimum placement of the components and a routing of the connections.