Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Testing
Electrostatic discharge testing is the process of testing a device’s resistance to electrostatic discharge, or ESD. ESD occurs when two electrically charged objects contact each other, are involved in an electrical short, or suffer a dielectric breakdown. This results in a sudden flow of electricity.
Think of the last time you got shocked when touching a metal object. This is because the human body has a charge of its own, which can react to other charges and create a burst of static. Static electricity can cause damage to electronic devices, so simulating it is necessary to test resistance. We explain more about what ESD testing is and the various procedures below.
What is an ESD Test?
An ESD test is fairly straightforward and involves using an ESD gun, also called an ESD simulator, to introduce the discharge to the device under test. An ESD gun is generally programmable, allows users to test with a discharge voltage of up to 16 kV or 30 kV, and capable of fulfilling EMC standards such as IEC 61000-4-2. Different standards can be achieved by using different RC networks with different rise times and pulse widths.
ESD can cause equipment to fail and networks to go down, and can potentially trigger explosions in gas, coal dust, or fuel vapor. Therefore, it is essential that test engineers perform ESD testing to guarantee immunity to these discharges, whether they originate from the human body, machines, or charged devices.
ESD Test Procedures
ESD immunity testing simulates discharges on devices with high frequency ESD pulses generated by ESD guns, either through direct contact with the device under test (DUT) or air-gap discharge as described by IEC 61000-4-2. ESD test methods account for the most common real-life instances of ESD and are divided into several models.
Watch the following video for an overview of ESD test models, or read below for a written explanation.
Human Body Model (HBM)
The Human Body
