Hybrid evolutionary partitioning algorithm for heat transfer enhancement in VLSI circuits

In this paper, a new approach to improving the heat transfer in integrated circuits (ICs) is presented. It is based on improving the thermal conductivity of ICs by increasing the number of their external connections up to the level determined by the packaging standard. In order to attain this goal, a new hybrid evolutionary partitioning algorithm (HEPA) for circuits partitioning is introduced. The computations carried out for the chosen benchmarks show that HEPA is able to reach optimal solutions in the case of bipartitioning problem, and almost optimal in the case of k-way partitioning (k > 2). The presented approach is especially dedicated for a flip chip interconnect technology which is used in contemporary ICs.