To My Readers



If this is the first time you're visiting my blog, thank you. Whether you're interested or just curious to find out about PCB reverse engineering (PCB-RE), I hope you'll find something useful here.

This blog contains many snippets of the content in my books to provide a more detailed overall sampling for my would-be readers to be better informed before making the purchase. Of course, the book contains more photos and nice illustrations, as evidence from its cover page. Hopefully, this online trailer version will whet your appetite enough to want to get a copy for yourself.

Top Review

I started doing component level repair of electronics with (and without) schematics more than 40 years ago, which activity often involves reverse-engineering of printed circuit boards. Although over the years my technical interests have shifted into particle beam instrumentation, electron microscopy, and focused ion beam technology fields, till this day——and more often than not——PCB repairs have returned multiple multi-million-dollar accelerators, FIB, and SEM instruments back to operation, delivering great satisfaction and some profit.

Many of the methods described by Keng Tiong in great details are similar to the approaches I've developed, but some of the techniques are different, and as effective and useful as efficient and practical. Systematic approach and collection of useful information presented in his books are not only invaluable for a novice approaching PCB-level reverse engineering, but also very interesting reading and hands-on reference for professionals.

Focus on reverse engineering instead of original design provides unique perspective into workings of electronics, and in my opinion books by Keng Tiong (I've got all three of them) are must-read for anybody trying to develop good understanding of electronics——together with writings by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, Phil Hobbs, Jim Williams, Bob Pease, Howard Johnson and Martin Graham, Sam Goldwasser, and other world's top electronics experts.

Valery Ray
Particle Beam Systems Technologist

Saturday, October 14, 2017

ScanCAD Edition

As mentioned in my previous post, I've come up with an interim edition for ScanCAD International Inc. while writing the chapters for the full version of the book. This special edition is now in the final works and will be delivered to ScanCAD in 1-2 weeks time. Below is a 2-page sample:


It gives a rough evaluation of the chances of doing PCB-RE using different approaches for a medium complex 4-layer board. Besides the table and charts, there's also further explanations given for the FPT, X-ray and delayering techniques (not shown). As a bonus, I have included a rare interview with the CEO of ScanCAD on his views about PCB-RE too!

Their next stop will be at Productronica 2017 in Munich, Germany on November 14-17. Interested readers in Europe who are going to this exhibition, do keep a look out for ScanCAD's booth...
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