ESD Information

Think Of Static Electricity as Germs and Contamination! Daily life has other examples of hidden enemies where careful procedures must be followed to regularly obtain positive results. One example is sterilization, which combats germs and contamination in hospitals. Damage caused by invisible and undetectable events can be understood by comparing ESD damage to medical contamination of the human…

Read more Operator’s Part in ESD Control

At this point in our blog series concerning ESD Awareness, we should  consider some basic physics: Ohm’s law is an extremely useful equation in the field of electrical/electronic engineering because it describes how voltage, current, and resistance are interrelated. Ohm’s law states that, in an electrical circuit, the current passing through a conductor between two…

Read more What is OHM’s Law?

There are three ESD Awareness Symbols defined in ANSI/ESD S8.1: ESD Susceptibility Symbol ESD Protective Symbol ESD Common Point Ground To view information about each symbol please click the link or image above. Desco provides downloadable symbol artwork at no charge: ESD Susceptibility Symbol ESD Protective Symbol ESD Common Point Ground Desco utilizes the proper […]

ESD damage is not always visible to the naked eye. ESD damage to electronic components can be: catastrophic and latent.  Catastrophic failure causes a failure in an ESD sensitive item that is permanent. The ESD event may have caused a metal melt, junction breakdown or oxide failure. Normal inspection is able to detect a catastrophic failure. A latent…

Read more Types  Of  ESD Device Damage

ElectroStatic charges and ElectroStatic discharges are different. All material can tribocharge (generate ElectroStatic charges). This is static electricity which is an electrical charge at rest. When an electrical charge is not at rest, but discharges (i.e. ESD), problems can occur. All matter is constructed from atoms which have negatively charged electrons circling the atom’s nucleus…

Read more ElectroStatic Charges vs Electrostatic Discharges (ESD)

Measure: Indicate surface voltage and polarity of objects. Control: Insulators must be identified at an ESD work area and must meet the guidelines in the ESDA’s ESD Control Program Handbook-ESD TR20.20. Non-Process Essential Insulators If items that can charge to 125 volts or more*, then one of the following will be used: Remove the item…

Read more Identify Sources of ESD at the Work Area with Static Field Meter: Measure – Control – Verify

 Most people notice a difference in the ability to generate static electricity when the air gets dryer (the % RH decreases). As an example, walking across a carpet can yield a charge of 35kV at 10% RH [very dry air], but will drop significantly to 7.5kV at 55% RH. In an electronics manufacturing environment lower…

Read more Dry Air and ESD Control

Lenovo Service posted a video on their youtube site called “Understanding Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) for Technicians.” We encourage you to take a look.  The video is very informative and does a good job of covering the basics of ESD control when working with ESD susceptible devices or components. The basic practices of controlling ESD when…

Read more Watch the Lenovo Service Video on ESD