Parts Identification/Screening of PCB Reverse Engineering

Parts Identification/Screening of PCB Reverse Engineering:

1st Step is Identification:

After disassembly each piece-part/component should be researched to identify existing part number, commercially available hardware, military standard parts, and non-standard parts. At this moment, multimeter will become one of the most commonly use tools to detect the value of crystal, resistor and capacitor include its tolerance, other items include footprint, material; other components like inductor coil need to be sent to dedicated manufacturer for testing in order to get its value; Other un-standard parts like the little hardware, such as the battery contact pad which you don’t have too much chance to find an exact same one from the exising market, need to be customized made; and a mold is necessary;

Economic analysis comes as the 2nd step:

An economic analysis should be performed on all sole-source and non-standard piece-parts/components to determine the cost-effectiveness of the piece-part/component after PCB reverse engineering.  Some parts/components have become obslete after these years of technology upgrade and related vendors phase out their production, some parts/components, especial the non-standard ones can’t find its right matching one from existing market, need to build dedicated molds to produce it; A limited screening process should also be performed on these components. All data supplied by the component manufacturer should be properly screened for proprietary data prior to providing it to the agency/contractor performing the reverse engineering pcb service.

Document research is a very important 3rd step:

Research concerning the existence of specifications or source control drawings should be conducted. A similar item drawing could exist and a simple tabulation drawing could be re-created to add the new part to the system. Most configuration control systems include a listing of parts and related drawings.

Master Cross Reference List is being viewed as 4th step:

A search may be made via a master cross reference list to screen the pertinent nomenclature and part number. The master cross reference list accesses the Technical Logistics Reference Network data bases which provide the exchange of technical information on parts and components, as follows:

a. Enables identification and location of components, sub-assemblies, and assemblies which are already used and supported in the Federal Supply System;

b. Identifies components and piece-parts having multiple uses across different systems and Services;

c. Allows searches by technical characteristics;

d. Identifies like-items used by all the Services; and