Re: [EE] Intentionally delaminating a PCB

That's what we don't know. The entity who designed this also provided 
the prototypes and assembled boards.

Cheers,
-Neil


On 4/3/2025 5:30 PM, John Lawton wrote:
> 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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>>
>>
>