Guest Editorial: Special Section on Physical Design Techniques for Advanced Technology Nodes

Advanced technology nodes have engendered new challenges in the design of integrated circuits (ICs), which can only be addressed through innovations in physical design techniques and algorithms. These challenges stem from factors such as increasingly complex manufacturing design rules, cell pin access in technologies utilizing multiple patterning and FinFETs, various types of restrictions and blockages on the routing layers, and complexity of the physical floorplan, for example due to irregular shapes of placeable areas. This issue and the next issue feature the special section on physical design aimed at addressing these challenges.