IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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26 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2026 a pumpkin spice oil change. Seriously? I can tolerate the candles and hand soap, but pumpkin spice motor oil is taking it too far. What's next? Pumpkin spice brake fluid? Cinnamon-nutmeg transmission fluid? Limited-edition autumn coolant with just a hint of clove? The Scary Stuff Personally, I don't rush straight into Christmas as some people do. I like to enjoy October, and, of course, Halloween. It's the one time of year when we actually enjoy being scared. With haunted hous- es, scary movies, and creepy decorations, we will- ingly walk straight toward the things designed to make us uncomfortable. At my age, getting scared has become a lot easier. I really don't need a haunted house anymore. Some mornings, just getting out of bed provides enough suspense. If everything bends, straightens, and starts moving in the right direc- tion without making any new sounds, I already consider the day a major success. PCB designers also don't need Halloween to know what true terror feels like. This profession has enough built-in "horror" to keep us awake all year long. That probably explains why so many senior PCB designers and engineers eventually fall into one of two categories: gray hair or no hair at all. After enough impossible schedules, last-minute changes, obsolete components, and "quick" revi- sions, your hair basically decides for you. The Nightmare on PCB Street So, in the spirit of Halloween, let's imagine a typi- cal street lined with typical houses in an ordinary neighborhood in a quiet town. This is PCB Street. At the very end sits one house that looks like all the others. But it isn't. This is the PCB Fright House. There are no ghosts, chainsaws, or creepy clowns. You're going to find out that inside this house is much, much worse, especially for PCB designers who like everything just right. As you approach the front door, it creaks open on its own. At first, everything looks perfectly normal— maybe a little too normal. Then you step inside. The lights are dimmed, but you can see a darkened hallway, and you feel that something scary is waiting in that darkness. Since this is a typical house on a typical street, logically, you have no need to fear. You start down the hallway. On the first door hangs a small sign: "The Room of Moving Walls." You reach for the handle, push the door open, and step inside, thinking you know exactly what this room will look like: four straight walls. But you were very wrong. It is, in fact, just like the sign on the door—the walls shift in front of your eyes. This dimly lit room represents one of the most familiar and frustrating fears in PCB design: changing requirements. You approach the design believing it is finally stable: The board outline is set, the connectors are placed, the stackup is defined, and the major decisions have been made. Then, without warning, the requirements begin to move. For a moment, you wonder, "Are the "walls" of this design actually moving? Are the require- ments changing again?" Yes, they are. You notice that the enclosure changes, a connector shifts, the stackup gets revised, or a component is replaced. Then you hear those terrifying words that send chills down every PCB designer's spine: "Let's add just one more feature to the design." Now, individually, each change looks manage- able. That's what makes this room of shifting walls so dangerous. In PCB design, very few changes stay isolated. If you move one connector, the place- ment changes. Placement changes routing, which can affect signal integrity, power distribution, clear- ances, thermal performance, and manufacturability. What looked like a simple adjustment can quietly ripple across the entire design, and before long, the room in this analogy looks nothing like it did when you first walked in. Don't Be Afraid of Change The real fear isn't that things change. Change is part of every design. The danger comes when those changes happen late, when their impact isn't understood, or when they aren't communicated to everyone involved. In this imaginary house of horrors, you turn to leave, but the door is no longer where you came E L E M E N TA RY, M R . WATS O N