[6][9] Most of his early research at UT Austin focused on RICE and various aspects of timing analysis,[10] including the concept of effective capacitance for delay calculation purposes.
[13] Based on predictions that lithography for ICs was fast approaching fundamental limits,[14] Pileggi led the development of design methods for regular fabrics that could accommodate the nanoscale patterning for integrated circuits.
[15] The MARCO/DARPA Gigascale Research Center honored him with their inaugural Richard A. Newton Industrial Impact Award in 2007 for his regular fabrics work.
[24] This work was recognized by a Best Paper Award at the 2017 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting,[25] and it also served as the foundation for the startup company Pearl Street Technologies, which he founded in 2018 with two of his former students.
[26][27] Pileggi's development of model order reduction methods resulted in the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society honoring him with the Mac Van Valkenburg Award in 2010.