Re: [EE] Intentionally delaminating a PCB

My question would be who made the prototype(?) pcbs, the pcb 
manufacturer might still have the gerber files from the original order?

John

On 03/04/2025 22:14, Dwayne Reid wrote:
> Hi there, Neil.
>
> Are the top and bottom layers full planes or can you see traces?
>
> The most common layer stacks have either solid planes for top and 
> bottom layers with traces on the inner layers **OR** traces on the top 
> and bottom layers with the possibility of planes for the inner layers.
>
> Regardless, I would be tempted to sand off the top and bottom layers, 
> then get X-ray images of the remaining layers.
>
> dwayne
>
>
> At 01:55 PM 4/3/2025, Neil wrote:
>> Thanks David,
>>
>> Have you done this or seen it done? I have the impression that once 
>> the sander gets to an inner layer of copper, it would tear up that 
>> copper, especially narrow traces.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -Neil
>>
>>
>>
>> On 4/3/2025 3:56 PM, David Robertson wrote:
>>> I would just sand right through the layers with an orbital sander or
>>> similar, and use a flatbed scanner to get images of each layer.
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> On Thu, 3 Apr 2025 at 15:49, Neil <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I'm in discussion with a company who had a product developed by 
>>>> another
>>>> entity, but that other entity left the project (to develop their own
>>>> competitive product) and won't deliver final files.
>>>> The board had gone through several iterations to deal with noise and
>>>> heat, and at this point they have the schematic, BOM and physical
>>>> boards, but no PCB layout files, nor Gerbers, so they can't produce 
>>>> more.
>>>> That's where I come in... they are asking me to reverse-engineer 
>>>> this to
>>>> get back the gerbers so they can continue production. Yes, I'll verify
>>>> it's legit.
>>>>
>>>> The boards are at least 4 layers, so not simple to reverse-engineer.
>>>>
>>>> What techniques are commonly used to do this? I can start by removing
>>>> the soldermask, and then carefully grind away the fiberglass, but
>>>> there's got to be a better way... is there? Any chemicals to eat
>>>> fiberglass and leave copper? Or any way to use heat etc to 
>>>> intentionally
>>>> delaminate the layers so they effectively just peel off? Or any other
>>>> tools to assist with this?
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> -Neil
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>
>