Means of prevention of PCB reverse engineering

Board reverse engineering (PCB Copy) is not the problem can or can not, but the cost worthy problem.
 
When designing a product, the PCB designer should consider cost of PCB instead of aiming at board can not be copied without cost consideration, but the appropriate anti-copy means should be selected according to the characteristics of the product to increase the complexity of the copy board, so that the cost of the copy board becomes unacceptable.

1. Polish off chip logos, using components without identification or place interference components without affecting the PCB function. Use these measures to increase the difficultly of board reverse engineering.

2. Using sealant or paint. This method can only simply to increase the difficulty of copy PCB board.

3. Using buried hole and blind hole technology, so that holes hidden in the inner layers, make indentify of holes difficult, this method is expensive, only for high-end products.

4. For high-frequency PCB board can use the characteristics of PCB, take advantage of parameters of distributed capacitance, making the board can not work properly after copy because the differences in distributed capacitance.

In general, the current reverse engineering process mostly can be achieved at low-cost, PCB designer can do is to increase the difficulty and cost of copy board.