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Electro Static Discharge (ESD) precautions
Friction between & separation of, dissimilar materials, causes electrons to be transferred from
one object to another. This imbalance of electrons between objects causes the objects to be at
different electrical potentials, relative to one and other.
When two bodies of opposite charge, or a charged and an uncharged body come into contact
with each other, electrons flow from one body to the other very rapidly, and can generate very
high current flows and heat for a very short period of time.
Synthetic materials like those clothes, carpets and furniture are made of are bad offenders,
particularly in very dry weather conditions. They are very good insulators and when a charge
is built up on them, it will not flow away due to leakage, it must be discharged by coming into
contact with another body. These materials generate high voltage Static Electricity charges
when rubbed together.
All of us have had a mild electric shock from a door handle, a metal cabinet or a similar object,
after we have walked some distance over a carpet or vinyl floor, or moved around on a plastic
chair. The motion of our body clad in clothing made of synthetic cloth causes us to be charged
to a high potential relative to surrounding objects.
These mild electric shocks cause us some discomfort when they occur but this is insignificant
when we look at the damage they do to modern electronic components.
The following table illustrates the typical magnitude of the voltage developed is some common
situations.
Typical Electro Static Voltage in KV
Source of ESD voltage
at a relative humidity of 20%
Walking across Vinyl floor 12 KV
Walking across synthetic carpet 35 KV
Opening a plastic bag 20 KV
Arising from a foam cushion 18 KV
Sliding plastic box on a carpet 18 KV
Removing plastic tape for a PC board 12 KV
Removing shrink film from PC board 12 KV
Triggering a vacuum solder remover 8 KV
Spraying aerosol freezer spray 15 KV
An example of how much humidity effects these figures can be shown by looking at the figure
for two of the above examples at a relative humidity of 70 to 90 %.
The figure for Walking across a vinyl floor falls from 12 KV to 0.25 KV and the opening a plastic
bag figure falls from 20 KV to only 0.6 KV.
What minimum discharge voltage can we see and hear?
Under most conditions a static discharge needs to be about 3500 Volt for us to feel it,
4000 Volt to see a spark in a dark room, and 10,000 Volt in room lighting.
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We need at least a 5000 Volt discharge to hear a crackle.
A potential of 250 Volt can be generated by waving an arm in the air and this can destroy
sensitive electronic components.
Modern electronic integrated circuits are getting more and more devices on the piece of silicon.
The internal devices are getting smaller and smaller with device sizes now as low as 0.3
microns. This means the voltage and amount of current from ESD that will damage
devices is now very low.
The need to make these circuits operate at faster and faster clock speeds has meant the
internal protection devices that were used on the input and output leads are now not very
often used, as they extra capacitance they add to the circuit limits the operating speed of the
device.
To add the problem is the fact, most of the damages done by ESD does not result in "instant
death" of the device.
The damage is said to be Latent Damage and often only shows up as degradation of
performance and usually eventual failure after some period of functioning apparently
normally.
Devices damaged in this way are often referred to as the "walking wounded".
Instant death, usually called Catastrophic Failure, only occurs in about 10% to 20% of devices
damaged by ESD.
This sort of damage is the best because it will not cause devices to get built into equipment and
fail when they are most needed.
Imagine a medical life support machine that failed due to an ESD damaged device, when you
were on the operating table!
It is not only the actual contact with devices that can destroy or damage them, they can also be
damaged by the electric field radiating out from an electrostaticaly charged body.
MOS technology devices, the most common high technology chips in use today, are most
susceptible to voltage or electrostatic field damage.
Bipolar and TTL devices are more susceptible to current damage, the current generated by the
flow of current due to the passage of an Electro Static Discharge through the device.
Typical figures for susceptibility of devices to ESD damage
Device type ESD susceptibility
Bipolar transistors 380 to 7000 Volt
CMOS logic devices 250 to 3000 Volt
EPROM devices 100 volt
Film resistors 300 to 3000 Volt
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TTL logic devices 1000 to 2500 Volt
Microprocessor chips as low as 10 Volt
ESD Protection materials
Three types of materials are used to protect Components from ESD.
• Conductive
• Static dissipative
• Anti‐static
Conductive protective materials Conductive materials provide the highest level of
protection.
Materials such as metals, conductive plastics, and conductive laminates are common, and metal
wire impregnated bags are also used.
The most common element used to make plastic materials conductive is carbon but this has the
disadvantage of shedding material that may contaminate components or assemblies.
Another problem with conductive protection is the possibility of static discharge through a
conductive bag, the devices inside.
Static dissipative protective materials
These materials provide a lower level of protection and are made out of the same materials as
the conductive protection materials.
They are thinner than the conductive materials.
Antistatic protective materials
Anti‐static materials provide the lowest level of protection.
Materials include some melamine laminates, high resistance conductive plastics, virgin cotton,
wood and paper products, and static dissipative or conductive materials of very small
thickness. The problem with these materials is that they provide protection against ESD
induced electrical currents but provide no protection for ESD voltage fields.
Methods of protection
ESD sensitive devices may be protected by one of the following methods:
• Grounding
• Isolation
• Neutralisation
Grounding is achieved by connecting the work area, the operator and the items being worked
on, to a known good grounding point with grounding straps.
This can be achieved in the field if the power points have a good earth, by equipping a three pin
power plug with a ground wire only, and clip that can be attached to a grounding mat.
It is important to test the power point for an effective earth before relying on this method.
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Isolation and neutralization is achieved by using th conductive protection materials described
above.
ESD safe work areas and protective equipment
Work stations where static sensitive equipment is handled must be equipped with the
following equipment:
• Bench top grounding points
• ESD protective table top or mat
• Wrist strap and grounding points
• Protective clothing, including hair protection
• ESD safe floor area
• ESD safe chair
• Ionised air blower
• ESD safe containers
When repairing equipment out in the field the minimum equipment to ensure a measure of
ESD protection is:
• Anti‐static conductive mat and grounding cable
• Wrist strap and grounding cables
• Supply of protective bags and other suitable containers
Field Service Technicians must also wear suitable clothing and avoid handling objects that can
generate dangerous electrostatic potentials.
These objects include non protective bags and containers, beverage and food containers, and
furniture.
Personal ESD protection equipment
Personal grounding
Personal grounding straps must be worn in close contact with the skin and are usually fitted
around the wrist.
The function of this strap is to make sure the operator is at the same potential as the work, and
the work surface.
A 10 Meg ohm resistor is included in the ground wire from the wrist strap to reduce the
possibility of a fatal shock occurring if accidental contact with mains voltage, or other high
voltage source, should occur.
Conductive shoe straps are worn inside shoes and go around the shoe and make contact with
the floor.
This grounds the operator to the conductive floor mat without the need for a foot strap that
would reduce personal mobility and may pose a danger when moving from work station to
work station.
Protective clothing
Long sleeved smocks are available that should be worn over static generating clothing.
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They are made from ESD protective material and have fine conductive threads woven into the
cloth.
Conductive hair nets are available as hair is a major source of static electricity.
The work station
The conductive bench top surface must be hard wearing and be able to withstand heat and
the commonly used chemicals.
A light neutral colour is important as it makes small objects placed on the surface, easy to find,
pale blue is the most common colour used.
The bench top or mat must be earthed to a ground point through a safety resistor of 10 Meg
ohm.
An ESD safe chair will have conductive wheels and drag chains to ensure it makes good
contact with the conductive floor mat.
The seat cushions should be made from conductive material so no static electricity charges are
built up with movement of the operator, on the chair.
Suitable conductive floor coverings are available as rubber matting, tiles or carpet material.
Like the other grounding items, the conductive floor covering should be grounded through a 10
Meg ohm safety resistor.
If it is important to have the highest level of protection against ESD then an Ionised Air
Blower will neutralise static charges built up on non conductive items, by supplying a constant
stream of both positive and negative ions to the work surface.
ESD safe containers
The wide range of static safe containers include:
• Static safe bags
• Conductive tote boxes
• Conductive foam
• Metal foil
• Device storage tubes
The most common staticsafe bags are the dark metalised transport bags PC cards are usually
delivered in. They offer good al round protection and are semi transparent so the items inside
can be viewed without the need to remove them from the bag.
The pink anti‐static bags and the bubble wrap will prevent the generation of electrostatic
charges and provide physical protection, but they do not offer electrostatic shielding
protection.
Conductive tote boxes with lids should be used to transport materials to and from the work
place. Open storage trays and boxes made out of conductive materials can be used for storage
on the work station.
Conductive foam is useful for short term storage and for ensuring all the leads of particularly
sensitive devices are shorted together during storage.
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Metal foil can be used to protect component devices when no suitable specialised containers
are available.
Care must be taken not to bend the pins on devices when wrapping them in this material.
A wide range of specialised device storage tubes are available and new components are
usually supplied in this type of packaging. The most easily recognised one of these is the tubes
used to transport and store DIL chips. They protect against ESD and physical damage.
ESD protection and common sense
The most important element in protection against ESD damage is common sense.
Never open ESD protective bags and boxes in unprotected areas.
Never let anyone not wearing the correct protective gear, handle sensitive equipment.
Often equipment is damaged in the shop, the store area or in the field, by someone opening
containers to "look" at the goods.
Points for the elimination of ESD damage
1. Make sure you have a reliable ground point available near the work site
2. Connect your body to the ground point with a wrist strap.
3. Ground all equipment you are working on with ground straps
4. Handle PC components only on a grounded anti‐static work surface.
5. Do not wear clothing which generates static electric charges every time you move.
6. Do not handle static generating objects while working on PC hardware.
7. Store all chips and other components in appropriate anti‐static containers.
8. Keep all PC cards in anti‐static envelopes until required.
9. Be sure to turn off the power and remove the power plug from all equipment before
working on it.
10. Do not plug in or remove devices such as printers and modems while the power is on.
Mechanical and Electrical damage
ESD is not the only hazard to PC Computer hardware.
Unused boards and drives should be stored in rigid cardboard boxes, so as to eliminate
mechanical damage to them from inappropriate storage and handling.
Boards and drives have many fragile surface mounted devices exposed on the outside, and
these can be knocked off or damages easily, destroying the board or drive.
Under no circumstances should a peripheral card of any sort be plugged into the Buses on a
System Board with the power on.
It is impossible to align the pins on the connectors exactly and this will mean adjacent bus
fingers will be shorted together.
The chances of destroying both the card and the system board are very great.
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The various digital signals on the Bus (data address and control) exist alongside power rails
and earth pins and all you have to do is to short a power rail to a signal pin and the hardware
will be destroyed.
ESD Device Sensitivity and Testing
Some devices may be more readily damaged by discharges occurring within automated
equipment, while others may be more prone to damage from handling by personnel.
The models and test procedures used to characterize, determine, and classify the sensitivity of
components to ESD.
1. Human Body Model (HBM)
2. Machine Model (MM)
3. Charged Device Model (CDM)
These models have been proven to be successful in reproducing over 95% of all ESD field
failure signatures. With the use of standardized test procedures, the industry can
• Develop and measure suitable on‐chip protection.
• Enable comparisons to be made between devices.
• Provide a system of ESD sensitivity classification to assist in the ESD design and monitoring
requirements of the manufacturing and assembly environments.
• Have documented test procedures to ensure reliable and repeatable results.
Human Body Model
Direct transfer of electrostatic charge through a significant series resistor from the
human body or from a charged material to the electrostatic discharge sensitive (ESDS)
device.
When one walks across a floor, an electrostatic charge accumulates on the body.
Simple contact of a finger to the leads of an ESDS device or assembly allows the body to
discharge, possibly causing device damage.
The HBM testing model represents the discharge from the fingertip of a standing individual
delivered to the device.
It is modeled by a 100 pF capacitor discharged through a switching component and a 1.5kOhm
series resistor into the component.
This model was developed for investigating explosions of gas mixtures in mines.
It was adopted by the military in MIL‐STD‐883 Method 3015, and is also used in ESD
Association standard ESD STM5.1: Electrostatic Discharge Sensitivity Testing Human
Body Model.
A typical Human Body Model circuit is presented in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Typical Human Body Model Circuit
Testing for HBM sensitivity is typically performed using automated test systems.
The device is placed in the test system and contacted through a relay matrix.
ESD zaps are applied and the post stress I‐V current traces are reviewed to see if the devices
fail.
The ESD Association HBM test standard was recently revised to include several technical
changes.
First, the number of zaps per stress level and polarity has been reduced from 3 to 1.
Also, the minimum time interval between zaps has been reduced from 1 second to 300
milliseconds.
The changes reduce the HBM qualification test time.
The second technical change is a revision in the HBM tester specifications.
The maximum rise time for an HBM wave form measured through a 500 ohm load was relaxed
from 20 to 25 nanoseconds.
This will allow HBM test equipment manufacturers to build high pin count testers that typically
have a higher parasitic test board capacitance that slows down the 500 ohm wave form.
Machine Model
A discharge similar to the HBM event also can occur from a charged conductive object, such as
a metallic tool or fixture.
Originating in Japan as the result of trying to create a worst‐case HBM event, the model is
known as the Machine Model.
This ESD model consists of a 200 pF capacitor discharged directly into a component with no
series resistor.
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As a worst‐case human body model, the Machine Model may be over severe.
However, there are real‐world situations that this model represents, for example the rapid
discharge from a charged board assembly or from the charged cables of an automatic tester.
Testing of devices for MM sensitivity using ESD Association standard ESD STM5.2:
Electrostatic Discharge Sensitivity Testing Machine Model is similar to HBM testing.
The test equipment is the same, but the test head is slightly different.
The MM version does not have a 1,500 ohm resistor, but otherwise the test board and the
socket are the same as for HBM testing.
The series inductance, as shown in Figure 2, is the dominating parasitic element that shapes
the oscillating machine model wave form.
The series inductance is indirectly defined through the specification of various waveform
parameters.
Figure 2: Typical Machine Model Circuit
Charged Device Model Testing
The transfer of charge from an ESDS device is also an ESD event.
A device may become charged, for example, from sliding down the feeder in an automated
assembler.
If it then contacts the insertion head or another conductive surface, a rapid discharge may
occur from the device to the metal object.
This event is known as the Charged Device Model (CDM) event and can be more destructive
than the HBM for some devices.
Although the duration of the discharge is very short‐‐often less than one nanosecond‐‐the peak
current can reach several tens of amperes.
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Several test methods have been explored to duplicate the real‐world CDM event and provide a
suitable test method that duplicates the types of failure that have been observed in CDM
caused field failures.
Current work in the area is concentrating on two separate CDM test methods.
One is termed CDM and best replicates the real world charged device event.
The other addresses devices that are inserted in a socket and then charged and discharged in
the socket. It is termed the socketed discharge model (SDM).
The device testing standard for CDM (ESD STM5.3.1: Electrostatic Discharge Sensitivity
Testing Charged Device Model) was published in 1999.
The test procedure involves placing the device on a field plate with its leads pointing up, then
charging it and discharging the device.
Figure 3 illustrates a typical CDM test circuit.
Figure 3: Typical Charged Device Model Test
SDM testing is similar to testing for HBM and MM sensitivity.
The device is placed in a socket, charged from a high‐voltage source and then discharged.
This procedure is still a work in process and has had to overcome a number of limitations
including too great a dependency on the specific design of the SDM tester.
A draft document may be ready for release later this year or in 2002.
A technical report, ESD TR0800: Socket Device Model (SDM) Tester is also available from
the ESD Association.
Device Sensitivity Classification
Each of the device testing methods includes a classification system for defining the component
sensitivity to the specified model (See Tables 1, 2, and 3).
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These classification systems have a number of advantages.
They allow easy grouping and comparing of components according to their ESD sensitivity and
the classification gives you an indication of the level of ESD protection that is required for the
component.
Human Body Model
Class Voltage Range
Class 0 < 250 volts
Class 1A 250 volts to < 500 volts
Class 1B 500 volts to < 1,000 volts
Class 1C 1000 volts to < 2,000 volts
Class 2 2000 volts to < 4,000 volts
Class 3A 4000 volts to < 8000 volts
Class 3B > = 8000 volts
Machine Model
Class Voltage Range
Class M1 < 100 volts
Class M2 100 volts to < 200 volts
Class M3 200 volts to < 400 volts
Class M4 > or = 400 volts
Charged Device Model
Class Voltage Range
Class C1 <125 volts
Class C2 125 volts to < 250 volts
Class C3 250 volts to < 500 volts
Class C4 500 volts to < 1,000 volts
Class C5 1,000 volts to < 1,500 volts
Class C6 1,500 volts to < 2,000 volts
Class C7 =>2,000 volts
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A fully characterized component should be classified using all three models: Human Body
Model, Machine Model, and Charged Device Model.
For example, a fully characterized component may have the following: Class 1B (500 volts to
<1000 volts HBM), Class M1 (<100 volts MM), and Class C3 (500 volts to <1000 volts CDM).
This would alert a potential user of the component to the need for a controlled environment,
whether assembly and manufacturing operations are performed by human beings or machines.