Electronics Reverse Engineering
Another one of our specialities! We’ve worked on many successful electronic reverse engineering projects and have the skill to do this from almost any source data. In the past we’ve reversed engineered designs from gerber, obsolete CAD systems, bare PCB’s, PCB assemblies and even wiring lists.
There’s more – we also have the capability to convert any legacy designs that need modifications with no access to the original design data. We can then provide you with the PCB and schematic files for future use.
C-Alley has a flatbed scanner-based re-engineering system that has the capability of scanning PCB’s, film, stencils, drawings, etc. In order to produce all the necessary data to re-manufacture a multi-layer PCB board. Many automatic processes aim to create Gerber data, Drill files, Netlist and schematics used to re-manufacture the PCB. The full Gerber editor that can be used to create/modify the Gerber data as necessary.
The high resolution scanner included with the system is calibrated with a NIST traceable glass plate ensuring an accurate image of the scanned film, stencil or PCB. The color scanning capability of the scanner and the powerful color separation software algorithms in the system permit the fast and easy color separation of images needed to vectorize multilayer PCB’s. The system also includes some powerful raster filter, clean up and editing features to help massage the raster data prior to vectorization.
C-Alley’s product has all of the powerful vectorization functions that have made ScanCAD successful since 1990. The resulting Gerber X data file sets the quality standard in the industry and is the reason why ScanFAB is the most successful and widely used PCB re-engineering system in the world today.
Re-engineering Features
C-Alley is a sophisticated re-engineering solution with the following features:
- A calibrated scanner to ensure accuracy
- High resolution scanning to handle very small features – down to 1 mil (25 micron) tracks
- Many automated functions to quickly and accurately place traces, pads, silkscreen, groundplane, etc.
- Up to 99 layers with accurate layer to layer alignment to handle multi-layer PCB’s
- Full Gerber editor
- Many Quality Control and verification functions to ensure accurate results
- Compare Gerber to image to ensure no misalignment or missing features
- Gerber 274X and Drill File Outputs – All the outputs needed to manufacture a PCB
- DXF outputs and TIFF outputs for documentation
- Easy to use, integrated system specifically designed for PCB re-engineering
Form, Fit and Function is very important in most cases. because if the new design does not have the same Form, Fit or Function as the original PCB. many costly and time consuming functional environmental tests need to be done to comply with FCC, FAA, FDA, etc requirements. Many older parts that are being re-engineered are spare parts for critical applications and it is important that the re-engineered part exactly duplicates the original part.
