To Route or Auto Route

We put this webinar together to address the complex issue of autorouting. It is a "high-level" presentation to look at the history and algorithms commonly used. As you will see, the effort is not simple. Routing a particular line is one thing; however, planning and prioritizing the routes are difficult. It is much like the old "chicken and egg" conundrum. The router must know the congestion points to prioritize routing; however, it does not know them until it starts to route.

We must also understand that the placement of components and real estate also plays a role in the ease or difficulty of autorouting. These are factors that are controlled outside of the autorouter.

The biggest effort in autorouting is constraining it. There need to rule in place to ensure that the routes are viable. There is a delicate balance. The more we constrain it, the more difficult it gets for the autorouter to complete the route.

More importantly, we must consider the time it takes to the autoroute. It is rare to get the routing correct on the first attempt. This is reviewing the result, modifying the rules or constraints, tweaking the strategy's order, and rerunning it. When the autorouter is done, the work must be reviewed. There will be odd routing formations that are "legal" within the constraints but would be considered poor routing practices if routed manually. Whether one wants to pour over the layout visually and correct issues or hand route each line and review the work as they progress.

In the end, we must decide whether or not to use an autorouter. This question completely depends on the board real estate, the number of components and pins, the clearances allowed, the strategies available, and the number of layers within the board. Though autorouters are used, most boards are still routed by hand. The human mind is still the better "autorouter."

Several EDA companies like Altium have moved away from the all-encompassing autorouter. An all-purpose router becomes a no-purpose router. There are too many scenarios and factors to make this viable. They recently introduced local routers that let the autorouter focus on a specific location. Once the router has completed the task in the space provided, the user can immediately review and clean up before moving.

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