Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1525004
34 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2024 As a kid, I remember long, hot, cross-country trips to the Midwest with my grandparents to visit relatives. Riding in the backseat of a 1970s station wagon without air conditioning, the only thing I had to look forward to was stop- ping at Stuckey's in Oklahoma, which had a snake farm right next door. As luck would have it, aer a hundred miles of passing signs adver- tising "Ramona's Snake Farm," Grandpa pulled in and made my trip come alive. I'd never seen a poisonous snake up close, and there were hundreds of them. Snake pits, snake handlers, and venom- milking demonstrations garnered lots of oohs, ahs, and applause from the motor-tourists, including me. e handlers explained the snakes' habitats and unique characteristics and, most importantly, how to avoid getting My Anti-venom to PCB Cost Adders bit. I le the snake farm with a greater under- standing of snakes, and I'm proud to say I've never been bit. One fairly benign species is Vipera berus, known as the common European adder, a ven- omous snake that isn't particularly aggressive, nor is its bite fatal. However, PCB designers risk getting bit by "adders" of another kind: Serpens addit nimium pretium, or simply, cost adders. Oen coiled up in product develop- ment teams' brainstorming sessions or lurk- ing inside the unexplored settings of our PCB design tools, these dangerous critters are of the profit-killing species. In my walkabouts through the PCB design and manufacturing jungles, I've met many PCB designers who have suffered painful bites from these cost adders. ese critters are particularly Target Condition Feature Column by Kelly Dack, CIT, CID+