PCB Reverse Engineering
Complete, buildable design packages recovered from physical hardware: schematics, CAD, and a BOM you own.
What is PCB reverse engineering?
PCB reverse engineering is the process of recreating complete design documentation from a physical circuit board — schematics, layout files, and a bill of materials. It is how products with lost or unavailable design data get maintained, re-manufactured, or improved. We reverse engineer boards into modern, editable CAD packages you can build from.
When the drawings are gone
A product that has shipped reliably for years suddenly cannot be built: the contract manufacturer closed, the design firm dissolved, the files lived on a server nobody backed up, or the one engineer who knew the board retired. It happens more often than anyone admits. The hardware still works; the knowledge of how to make it is gone.
Reverse engineering rebuilds that knowledge. From physical boards we recreate the schematic, the layout, and the BOM — as editable, modern CAD that you own, not a scan in a drawer. From there the product can be manufactured again, maintained, or improved.
When recreation is not enough
A faithful recreation of a twenty-year-old board sometimes reproduces a twenty-year-old problem: parts that no longer exist. That is when reverse engineering becomes selective redesign — substituting modern equivalents, re-routing sections around new footprints, and re-verifying behavior against the original.
We flag this at assessment, not after you have paid for a package you cannot build. If the job needs more than recreation, you will know before we start, along with what the redesign path costs.
Reverse engineering vs redesign vs cloning: what are you actually buying?
Reverse engineering recreates the documentation for an existing board. Redesign goes further and changes the design: new parts, improvements, new capability. Cloning copies someone else's product, and it is the one of the three we will not do. Many projects that start as reverse engineering end as partial redesign, because obsolete parts force the issue.
| Reverse engineering | Redesign | Cloning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Recover lost design documentation | Improve or modernize an existing product | Copy a product you do not own |
| Starting point | A physical board, little or no documentation | Any mix of hardware and design files | A competitor's product |
| What you get | Schematics, CAD, and BOM matching the original | A new, improved design with documentation | An infringing copy |
| The right call when | Files are lost, the vendor is gone, the board must be rebuilt as-is | Parts are obsolete or the product needs new capability | Never — we decline this work |
| Legal footing | Sound for hardware you own or maintain | Sound — it is your product | Copyright, patent, and trade-secret exposure |
What we can recover
How a board is reverse-engineered
- 01
Assessment
We inspect the physical hardware: board condition, layer count, component legibility, and which capture method the job needs. The quote comes from the board, not a form.
- 02
Capture
High-resolution imaging and careful measurement, layer by layer. Multilayer boards may require sacrificial deconstruction of one sample.
- 03
Schematic Reconstruction
The netlist is extracted and rebuilt into a readable, hierarchical schematic — organized the way an engineer would draw it, because one did.
- 04
CAD & BOM Recreation
The board is rebuilt in native CAD with a current BOM, substituting modern equivalents where original parts are obsolete.
- 05
Verify & Document
The recreated design is checked against the original hardware, netlist to netlist and function to function, then released as a complete buildable package.
The documentation package
Recovery capability at a glance
How much does PCB reverse engineering cost?
Price follows the board: component count, layer count, and condition. A legible two-layer board is quick work; a dense multilayer assembly with unmarked or obsolete parts is real engineering. Every job is quoted from the physical hardware.
| Scope | Typical cost | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Schematic recovery, simple two-layer board | $1,000 – $5,000 | Component count and part legibility |
| Full CAD + BOM, multilayer board | $5,000 – $20,000 | Layer capture, density, net count |
| Complex assembly with obsolete parts | $20,000 – $50,000+ | Inner-layer capture, replacement engineering, verification builds |
Directional ranges. Two or more sample units make multilayer work faster and cheaper, since inner-layer capture can be destructive.
PCB Reverse Engineering FAQs
Generally yes when you reverse engineer hardware you own for maintenance, repair, interoperability, or re-manufacture — especially your own legacy products. It becomes a problem when the goal is copying someone else's protected product for sale. We ask about ownership and intent up front, and we decline work that looks like cloning.
The usual triggers: the original manufacturer disappeared or discontinued the product, the design files were lost or never delivered, a key component went obsolete and the board needs a redesign, or an inherited product needs changes and nobody has the schematics.
Physical hardware, ideally two or more units, since inner-layer capture can be destructive on multilayer boards. Any surviving documentation helps, even a photo of a nameplate. We assess feasibility and quote from the actual board.
Yes. Two-layer boards are traced directly; multilayer boards need layer-by-layer capture, which is where a second sacrificial unit matters.
From roughly a thousand dollars for schematic recovery on a simple two-layer board, to tens of thousands for a dense multilayer assembly with obsolete parts to engineer around. Component count, layer count, and board condition drive the price. We quote after inspecting the physical hardware.
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