Abstract: A multilevel partitioning scheme with controlled path delay is proposed by incorporating the clustering and partitioning protection.In the clustering phase,for simultaneous cutsize and circuit delay minimization,the more critical and independent paths are clustered in the finer netlist.During the partitioning phase,critical path delay can satisfy the specified timing constrains by controlling the number of path cut.Our scheme is capable of overcoming drawbacks of current path-based timing-driven multilevel partitioning algorithms: uncontrolled path cut and frequent timing analysis.The experimental results show that a good trade-off between cutsize and delay can be obtained by our algorithm.