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

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Embedding Components in PCB

In recent years there have been discussions and papers on embedding components into printed circuit boards among manufacturers and designers alike. From a PCB designer's point of view, there are advantages to this approach, such as improved signal integrity due to shorter trace runs and smaller lead inductance resulting in reduced EMI. On the flip side, there are also challenges since current EDA tools lack support for this kind of design requirement in terms of component library and routing strategies. Manufacturers likewise face new difficulties implementing this new technology in PCB fabrication, most notably the need for major overhaul in their manufacturing process and equipment.


Doubtless, it will be the end-users or customers who will determine whether this new approach takes off or remain a novel idea on the drawing board. Those looking to protect their designs from hackers and reverse engineers will probably give it some consideration. However, in the long run, it will be the cost of maintenance and repair of these PCBs that will determine the outcome. Still, those of us in the PCB-RE business will need to keep an eye on its development; it may become a reality in the not too distant future, perhaps 3-5 years from now.
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