A power PCB copy rebuilds a working power board — SMPS, inverter, motor drive, LED driver, DC-DC brick — from the physical sample into manufacturable files: Gerbers with the correct copper weight, a drill file, a BOM with real magnetics data, and a schematic if you need one. On power boards the copy has to preserve things a plain trace-tracing job ignores: copper thickness, creepage and clearance, thermal relief, and the transformer construction. That’s the whole difference.
Most people asking for this have a dead board, no files, and a machine that isn’t running. So here’s what actually happens to your board and what we can and can’t promise.
Why a power board is not just another PCB copy
On a control board, if you get the netlist right you’re basically done. On a power board, netlist-correct and functionally-correct are two different states. The same connections laid out with 1 oz copper instead of 3 oz, or with 0.8 mm spacing where the original had 3 mm across an isolation barrier, will pass a continuity check and then fail in the field.
So a power PCB copy has to capture four extra dimensions of information:
- Copper weight and finished trace geometry. We measure copper thickness on a cross-section or with a calibrated micrometer on an exposed area, not by guessing from trace width. A 1 oz / 2 oz / 3 oz mistake changes the temperature rise on a high-current path. IPC-2152 is the reference for trace current versus temperature rise, and we use it to sanity-check whether the copy’s copper can carry what the original carried.
- Creepage, clearance, and slots. Primary-to-secondary spacing, the milled isolation slot under an optocoupler, the routed channel between line and neutral — these are safety features, not layout preferences. We measure them and reproduce them, and we flag any place where the original itself is marginal.
- Thermal design. Copper pours acting as heatsinks, thermal vias under a MOSFET or a package with an exposed pad, via count and via barrel plating, aluminum or metal-core substrate, insulated pad areas under TO-247 devices.
- Magnetics and wound components. The transformer or inductor is usually the part with no readable marking and no datasheet. This is where most power board copies stall.
If you want the general background on what board duplication involves before reading further, our explanation of what a PCB copy actually produces covers the basics that apply to every board type.
What happens to your board, step by step
1. Intake and non-destructive documentation
The board is photographed at high resolution on both sides before anything is touched, with the reference designators, silkscreen, and every component marking captured. We record board dimensions, board thickness, connector positions, mounting hole positions, and the location of anything mechanical — heatsink brackets, standoffs, Y-cap placement, spark gaps.
If the power section is potted, coated, or sitting under a heatsink pressed onto thermal pad, we note that now, because it changes the plan.
2. Component identification and BOM build
Semiconductors get read off the package. Passives get measured — capacitance, ESR where it matters, resistor value and power rating from body size, voltage rating from case dimensions and the manufacturer series code. Electrolytics on the bulk rail get their ripple current class recorded, because substituting a general-purpose cap for a low-ESR high-ripple part is a common way for a copy to die at month six.
Any part we can’t identify with confidence goes on the list as “to confirm,” not as a guess.
3. Magnetics characterization
The transformer is unwound. Core type and material grade, gap, bobbin, wire gauge, turns count per winding, winding order, layer of tape between windings, triple-insulated wire versus margin tape — all recorded. Then we build a winding specification a magnetics supplier can quote from, and cross-check the result: measured primary inductance, leakage inductance, and turns ratio on the rebuilt sample against the original.
This step is the one that separates a power board copy from a signal board copy, and it’s the one that takes the most time.
4. Layer separation and copper recovery
Two-layer boards are scanned directly. Multilayer power boards get imaged layer by layer, with controlled removal between layers, so the inner planes and their splits are recorded accurately. Heavy copper makes this slower — thick copper takes longer to remove cleanly, and a rough job smears the plane boundaries you’re trying to record. Where the process risks separating the laminate, we watch for it; the notes on handling delamination during layer work explain how we deal with a board that’s already been through thermal stress.
5. File rebuild
Copper geometry, drill sizes, plated versus non-plated, soldermask, silkscreen, board outline including routed isolation slots, and stackup with dielectric thicknesses and copper weights per layer. We also produce a paper stackup note that says explicitly what the fab must not “optimize” — copper weight and slot dimensions being the two that fabs most often quietly change.
6. Verification against the real board
This is the part that matters. A netlist is extracted from the rebuilt files and compared node-for-node against a netlist buzzed out of the original board. Discrepancies are resolved on the physical board, not in the CAD file. Then we build the copy, populate it, and — where you can tell us the operating conditions — run it: input range, load steps, output ripple, efficiency at a couple of load points, thermal imaging under load compared against the original board under the same load.
Copper and clearance are checked against IPC-A-600 and IPC-6012 acceptability criteria on the fabricated copy, so plating thickness and annular ring aren’t just assumed. Our page on how copy accuracy is measured and reported goes into what we hand over as evidence.
What to send us to get a real answer
You’ll get a useful reply faster if the first message contains all of this:
- Photos of both sides of the board, whole board in frame, shot flat on a dark background with even light. Then close-ups of the controller IC marking, the transformer/inductor, and any label or date code.
- Board dimensions and thickness, plus layer count if you know it.
- Electrical ratings from the product label or the equipment nameplate: input voltage range, output voltage and current, power rating.
- The controller part number if it’s readable, and whether there’s an MCU or DSP on board.
- One line on deliverables — Gerber and BOM only, or schematic too, or built and tested samples, or production quantity.
- Whether the power section is potted or heatsinked, and whether you have a second board you can spare.
What comes back: a feasibility read on the magnetics and any locked or unmarked parts, a lead time, a price, and a note on anything we think will need a decision from you. Board sample shipping is a separate question — whether we need the physical board depends on how much of the work is copper and how much is magnetics, and for a power board the answer is almost always yes.
Deliverable tiers, and which one you probably want
| You want to… | Ask for | Includes magnetics spec? |
|---|---|---|
| Get bare boards refabricated, you assemble | Gerber + drill + stackup | No |
| Rebuild the whole board yourself | Gerber + BOM + placement file | Yes, winding spec |
| Modify the design or swap an obsolete controller | Full schematic + Gerber + BOM | Yes, plus measured inductances |
| Just get working spares, no files needed | Built and tested samples | Handled internally |
| Ongoing supply | Files + first-article + production run | Yes, with supplier qualification |
Most maintenance customers over-buy here. If the machine only needs to run again, you don’t need a schematic. Ask for the schematic when you intend to change something.
What drives the price and the schedule
Nobody can quote a power board from a keyword. The variables that move the number are layer count, board area, component count, how many distinct wound components there are, whether the copper is heavy, whether there’s a BGA or a fine-pitch package needing X-ray, whether firmware is involved, and which deliverables you picked.
Schedule-wise: a two-layer flyback supply with one transformer and readable markings is quick. A four- or six-layer inverter board with heavy inner planes, two magnetics, a locked DSP, and an obsolete gate driver is a different project entirely — the inner layers have to be imaged separately, the magnetics have to be unwound and re-characterized, and the obsolete part needs a substitution study before anyone can build anything. Sector matters too; the documentation burden on an automotive power board copy is higher than on a bench power supply.
Where a power PCB copy gets hard, and where we say no
Straight talk on the limits:
- Potted and epoxy-filled modules. Removing potting compound without destroying the parts underneath is possible sometimes and destructive other times. We’ll tell you which before you pay, and we’ll ask for two boards.
- Custom transformers with proprietary core material. We can specify turns, gap, and geometry exactly. If the original core is a house-grade material from one vendor, the copy uses the closest available equivalent and the performance is verified rather than assumed. Sometimes there’s a small efficiency delta. We report it.
- Heavily damaged boards. A board that failed by exploding took the evidence with it. Burned copper, vaporized traces, and a cratered transformer mean we’re reconstructing from a partly destroyed sample. Second board strongly preferred.
- Locked digital controllers. A
Working on a board like this?
Send the chip marking or two photos. You get feasibility, lead time and price within 24 hours, and the check costs nothing.
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