V sml wrote:
> Anyone know of a quicker way than sanding off the lettering?  What are
> the side-effects of encapsulating IC with epoxy? and where to find the
> type of epoxy?

Been there, did that. Use regular sandpaper, and sand it until you see
the chip bones... :)

When you do it the surface gets light gray and you "think" it's done,
but still ink below that. A light film of oil can reveal all your chip
secrets and love life :)

Remember that the most silly hacker can identify your chip in less than
45 seconds, package, crystal position, capacitors, input and output
pins, power and so on, very fast. Again, been there, did that.  I know
some guys that can identify a dozen "no-name" chips in a PCB faster than
you take to "blank" them with sandpaper.

Encapsulate chips, or even the whole board, is a solution, but nothing
that a good solvent during the night can't just dissolve everything back
to the nice black readable chips.  Remember, everything a hacker needs
is a semi-disolved board, it will increase his appetite.

There is one way, very hard to hack, but it cost.  We can produce for
you a tinny board over ceramic, glass or even FE4, using your circuit
with chips in die form. The final encapsulation is in metal it turns to
be a large chip, 1x1 inch or bigger.  All a hacker hates is a customized
proprietary chip.  In this large substrate we can also accommodate SMT
resistors, capacitors and gates in general. Today almost all
manufacturers can supply their chips in die form.  If you are interested
for a small large production <g> email me.