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This paper discusses commonly used reverse engineering methods to illegally recreate printed circuit board (PCB) designs. A solution using transformative electronics is presented to prevent the discussed reverse engineering methods by obfuscating the design. The transformative electronics solution is employed in a specific application that results in a reverse engineered board to be incorrectly recreated, where the signals would be distorted due to added electromagnetic interference (EMI). The nonconductive vias that are part of the obfuscation would allow the inclusion of EMI generators that would not affect the circuit in an original design but would prevent copied designs from working correctly. A machine learning algorithm is being designed to optimize the placement of the EMI sources in an original PCB.

The two prerequisites for the referential-based image comparison method, perfect registration and stable lighting, are hard to achieve under real PCB inspection environment. In this paper, an objection description based on learning for PCB inspection is proposed to compensate for allowable minor variations of object placement and lighting variations, and the threshold image approach is provided to effective avoid false defects. The experimental results show that the developed method is successful in locating defects occurring on PCB, and the result can be used to quality control.

The dynamical model for a drawer structure with multi-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs) was established by the finite element method and the random vibration responses were analyzed in this paper. Firstly, the natural frequencies and their corresponding modes were obtained in terms of the finite element model of the drawer structure with PCBs. Secondly, the random vibration responses were obtained numerically for the drawer structure under random excitations. Finally, sensitive points on each layer of the drawer structure were selected to calculate the vibration responses and the acceleration power spectral density (PSD). The stress power spectral density of typical points on the PCB with high stress was also analyzed. The simulation results reveal that the largest vibration energy of the PCBs usually occurs in the middle layer of the structure and thus components in the middle of the PCBs are most likely to be destroyed.

The INFN group of Rome is developing two silicon microstrip detector planes to be part of the tracking system of the SBS spectrometer, that will be installed in the experimental Hall A of Jefferson Labortatory, in order to improve its resolution. The detector and the PCB design were the results of models simulated using PSPICE. The entire assembly process will be realized in the INFN Roma clean room CL10000 facility.