Method for nondestructive reverse-engineering of layers of printed circuit board

A nondestructive method for generating a representation of a pattern of electrically conductive material on at least one layer of a multiple-layer printed circuit board (PCB), wherein the at least one layer potentially has a non-planar surface, wherein the electrically conductive material is positioned on the non-planar surface, and wherein the electrically conductive material has a thickness orthogonal to the non-planar surface, the method comprising:

• generating a plurality of imaging slices with a three-dimensional (3D) scanning device, each imaging slice comprising a plurality of voxels, each voxel having a volume centered at a respective 3D coordinate with respect to a common origin, each voxel having an intensity responsive to a density of electrically conductive material in the volume of the voxel;
• evaluating the voxels in each imaging slice to identify voxels having intensities representing electrically conductive material;
• establishing a reference plane that includes at least one voxel identified in a selected one of the plurality of imaging slices, the reference plane parallel to a plane tangential to the non-planar surface;
• for a voxel not in the selected imaging slice, determining a distance of the voxel from the reference plane and adjusting the respective 3D coordinate of the voxel to effectively position a respective adjusted voxel in the reference plane;
• and
• generating a two-dimensional (2D) image comprising the at least one voxel and the adjusted voxel in the reference plane, the 2D image representing the pattern of electrically conductive material in the at least one layer.