PCB News - Causes of PCB printed circuit boards being copied

The technical realization process of PCB copy board is simply to scan the circuit board to be copied, record the detailed component location, and then remove the components to make a bill of materials (BOM) and arrange the material purchase. If the board is empty, The scanned picture is processed by the copying software and restored to a PCB board drawing file, and then the PCB file is sent to the plate making factory to make the board. After the board is made, the purchased components are soldered to the made PCB board, and then the circuit board is tested And debugging.

The specific steps of PCB copy board:

The first step is to get a piece of PCB. First, record the model, parameters, and positions of all vital parts on the paper, especially the direction of the diode, the tertiary tube, and the direction of the IC gap. It is best to use a digital camera to take two photos of the location of the vital parts. The current PCB circuit boards are getting more and more advanced. Some of the diode transistors above are not noticed at all.

The second step is to remove all the multi-layer boards and copy the boards, and remove the tin in the PAD hole. Clean the PCB with alcohol and put it in the scanner. When the scanner scans, you need to raise the scanned pixels slightly to get a clearer image. Then lightly polish the top and bottom layers with water gauze until the copper film is shiny, put them in the scanner, start PHOTOSHOP, and scan the two layers in separately in color. Note that the PCB must be placed horizontally and vertically in the scanner, otherwise the scanned image cannot be used.

The third step is to adjust the contrast and brightness of the canvas so that the part with copper film and the part without copper film have a strong contrast, and then turn the second image into black and white, and check whether the lines are clear. If not, repeat this step. If it is clear, save the picture as black and white BMP format files TOP.BMP and BOT.BMP. If you find any problems with the picture, you can use PHOTOSHOP to repair and correct it.

The fourth step is to convert the two BMP format files to PROTEL format files, and transfer two layers in PROTEL. For example, the positions of PAD and VIA that have passed through the two layers basically coincide, indicating that the previous steps are well done. If If there is a deviation, repeat the third step. Therefore, PCB copying is a job that requires patience, because a small problem will affect the quality and the degree of matching after copying the board.

The fifth step is to convert the BMP of the TOP layer to TOP.PCB, pay attention to the conversion to the SILK layer, which is the yellow layer, and then you can trace the line on the TOP layer, and place the device according to the drawing in the second step. Delete the SILK layer after drawing. Keep repeating until all the layers are drawn.

The sixth step is to import TOP.PCB and BOT.PCB in PROTEL, and it is OK to combine them into one picture.

The seventh step, use a laser printer to print TOP LAYER and BOTTOM LAYER on transparent film (1:1 ratio), put the film on that PCB, and compare whether there are errors. If they are correct, you are done. .

A copy board that is the same as the original board was born, but this is only half done. It is also necessary to test whether the electronic technical performance of the copy board is the same as the original board. If it is the same, it is really done.

Remarks: If it is a multilayer board, you need to carefully polish to the inner layer, and repeat the copying steps from the third to the fifth step. Of course, the naming of the graphics is also different. It depends on the number of layers. Generally, double-sided copying requires It is much simpler than multi-layer boards. Multi-layer copy boards are prone to misalignment. Therefore, multi-layer board copy boards must be especially careful and careful (the internal vias and non-vias are prone to problems).

Double-sided board copy method:

1. Scan the upper and lower layers of the PCB and save two BMP pictures.

2. Open the copy board software Quickpcb2005, click "File" "Open Base Map" to open a scanned picture. Use PAGEUP to zoom in on the screen, see the pad, press PP to place a pad, see the line and follow the PT line...just like a child drawing, draw it in this software, click "save" to generate a B2P file.

3. Click "File" and "Open Base Image" to open another layer of scanned color image;

4. Click "File" and "Open" again to open the B2P file saved earlier. We see the newly copied board, stacked on top of this picture-the same PCB board, the holes are in the same position, but the wiring connections are different . So we press "Options"-"Layer Settings", turn off the top-level line and silk screen display here, leaving only multi-layer vias.

5. The vias on the top layer are in the same position as the vias on the bottom picture. Now we can trace the bottom line just like we did in childhood. Click "Save" again-the B2P file now has two layers of information on the top and bottom layers.

6. Click "File" and "Export as PCB File", and you can get a PCB file with two layers of data. You can change the board or output the schematic diagram or send it directly to the PCB plate factory for production.

Grinding board is currently the most common solution used for layering, and it is also the most economical. We can find a discarded PCB and try it. In fact, there is no technical difficulty in grinding the board, but it is a bit boring.