Late Breaking Results: Advanced PCB Placement with Irregular Components for Efficient Collision Detection and Routability Optimization

This paper introduces an automated placement framework to optimize component positioning on modern printed circuit boards (PCBs), addressing challenges posed by heterogeneous components, irregular geometries, and complex design rules. The framework employs three key techniques to enhance placement quality and efficiency: (1) a global placement approach integrating collision detection via the Separating Axis Theorem to handle exact component contours and board shapes, (2) a multi-stage force-directed method that dynamically adjusts attractive and repulsive forces to meet clearance and routability constraints, and (3) a scanline-based legalization technique to resolve overlaps and enforce spacing requirements. Our methodology effectively adapts to diverse design limitations and accelerates the process while preserving placement quality. Experimental results demonstrate that our placer significantly improves routability over state-of-the-art solutions, demonstrating robust performance on industrial PCB designs with complex and irregular constraints.