Potting a circuit, how reasonable can this action protect IP?

Question

It's a cold, cut throat world out there. Designs are stolen left and right. But, how can one protect a circuit design from IP theft and reverse engineering? I recently developed a system for a company, and they were concerned that the circuit design could easily be stolen. It was true. Just by looking at the PCB you could easily see the layout, the chips used, and component placement. Unfortunately, patenting was not an option due to several factors. My solution: Pot the electronics. I figure, might as well make it as hard to reverse engineer as possible. Has anyone ever de-potted any electronics, and how did it go? From my experience, it is exceedingly difficult and destroys the circuits. But perhaps I am not learned in the art of corporate espionage. Is there another way to make it impossible to see, get at, a circuit? Cabe

Former Member · Answer

In the late 1990s I was involved in methods of protecting military chip sets from tampering. These devices were created by the NSA and were used in navigation computers. To protect them, a Plasma Sputtering system was created to coat the bare chips with a layer of metal after it had been directly attached to the circuit. These people were worried about the chips being reverse engineered. Your problem is at the PC Board level. There are potting compounds that may help you but you should know that anything man can make a man can break. The object of protecting something is making it so difficult that the reverse engineer will loose interest in breaking through the protection.