It may not be practical for everyone, but we make sure not to use turnkey manufacturers. For example, one factory might populate and reflow boards and then assemble it into a case, but they don't have the board or case designs - we have them manufactured by other suppliers and supply them and all the components. That way no one factory can just start manufacturing our products because they don't have enough information.
Yes, they can reverse-engineer but it's harder with four or more layer circuit boards and they don't have the full BOM information.
This is also a good strategy for not getting counterfeit parts (that may not work) on your boards - you can use the suppliers and brokers you trust instead of whoever your factory decides to buy from.
Yes, they can reverse-engineer but it's harder with four or more layer circuit boards and they don't have the full BOM information.
This is also a good strategy for not getting counterfeit parts (that may not work) on your boards - you can use the suppliers and brokers you trust instead of whoever your factory decides to buy from.