The L_∞ Voronoi diagram of segments and VLSI applications

In this paper we address the L∞ Voronoi diagram of polygonal objects and present applications in VLSI layout and manufacturing. We show that the L∞ Voronoi diagram of polygonal objects consists of straight line segments and thus it is much simpler to compute than its Euclidean counterpart; the degree of the computation is significantly lower. Moreover, it has a natural interpretation. In applications where Euclidean precision is not essential the L∞ Voronoi diagram can provide a better alternative. Using the L∞ Voronoi diagram of polygons we address the problem of calculating the critical area for shorts in a VLSI layout. The critical area computation is the main computational bottleneck in VLSI yield prediction.