Chapter 15

Electrostatic Discharge

Electromagnetic Compatibility
Engineering
by Henry W. Ott
 Foreword
 Examples of products using the static electricity principle are
electrostatic copiers, dust precipitators, air purifiers, and electrostatic
spray painters.
 However, uncontrolled electrostatic discharge (ESD) has become a
hazard to the electronics industry.
 Since the early 1960s, it has been recognized that many integrated
circuits (ICs), metal-oxide semiconductors (MOSs), discrete electrical
parts such as film resistors and capacitors, and crystals are susceptible
to damage from electrostatic discharge.
 As electronic devices become smaller, faster, and operate at lower
voltages, their susceptibility to ESD will increase.

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 Static Generation
 Static electricity can be created in many different ways - triboelectric
charging, induction charging, and piezoelectric effect. But the most
common is by contact and subsequent separation of materials -
triboelectric charging.
 Triboelectric means ‘‘rubbing amber.’’
 All that is actually required is that the materials come into contact and
are then subsequently separated.
 The triboelectric series is a listing of materials in order of their affinity
for giving up electrons.

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Static Generation
(The series is only approximate.)

4
 Static Generation
 The degree of separation of the two materials in Table 15-1 does not
necessarily indicate the magnitude of the charge created.
 The magnitude depends not only on the position of the materials in the
triboelectric series but also on the surface cleanliness, pressure of the
contact, amount of rubbing, surface area in contact, smoothness of
surface, and the speed of separation.
 A charge can also be generated when two pieces of the same material
are in contact and subsequently separated.


 Triboelectric charging also occurs when an insulator is separated from a

conductor.
 Intimate contact is all that is required for electron transfer to occur.

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 Static Generation
 Rubbing tends to increase the pressure of the contact and bring more of
the surface in contact and hence increases the charge transfer.
 Faster separation allows less time for charge reflow, which also increases
the charge transfer and the subsequent voltage.


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 Static Generation
 Static electricity is a surface phenomenon. Grounding an insulator will
not eliminate the charge.
 Electrostatic discharge is normally a three-step process as follows:
1. A charge is generated on an insulator.
2. This charge is transferred to a conductor by contact or induction.
3. The charged conductor comes near a metal object and a discharge
occurs.
 A charged insulator by itself is not directly an ESD threat. The danger
from a charged insulator comes from its potential for producing a charge,
usually by induction, onto a conductor, such as a person, which then is
capable of a discharge.

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 Static Generation – Inductive Charging


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 Static Generation – Inductive Charging


9
 Static Generation – Inductive Charging
 The ground connection only has to be momentary, and it can have
considerable impedance (100 k or more).

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 Static Generation – Energy Storage
 Free-space capacitance of objects

C  111 r (pF) (r in meters) (15  3)

r2  
  8.85  1012 F/m

 The procedure to estimate the minimum (free-space) capacitance of any

object:
1) determine the surface area of the object for which you want to
calculate the free-space capacitance;
2) calculate the radius of a sphere having the same surface area;
3) calculate the capacitance from Eq. 15-3.
 The capacitance between two parallel plates is equal to

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 Human Body Model
 Humans are a prime source of electrostatic discharge.

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 Human Body Model


 If, however, the discharge occurs from a large metal object in contact
with the person, such as a chair or a shopping cart, the resistance can
be as low as 50 .

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 Human Body Model
 Figure 15-6 shows
the typical
waveshape produced
by a 150-pF, 330-
human body model
discharge into a
special 2- test
target specified in EN
61000-4-2. The rise
time is 0.7 to 1 ns,
and the peak current
is 30 A for an 8-kV
discharge, and 15 A
for a 4-kV discharge.

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 Human Body Model


15
 Human Body Model
 An actual discharge from a voltage of less than 3500 V will not be felt or
sensed by the person involved. Because many electronic devices are
sensitive to damage from discharges of only a few hundred volts,
component damage can occur from a discharge that is not felt, heard, or
seen. At the other extreme, discharges from potentials greater than 25
kV are painful to the person involved.

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 靜電放電測試環境設置圖

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 Static Discharge
 Charge accumulated on an object leaves the object by one of two ways,
leakage or arcing. Because it is better to avoid arcing, leakage is the
preferred way to discharge an object.
 Charge can leak off an object through the air, because of humidity.
 The charge on an object can also be counteracted by using an ionizer to
fill the air with positive and negative charged ions.
 Leakage from a charged conductor can be made to occur by
intentionally grounding the object. This ground may be a hard ground
(close to 0 ) or a soft ground (a large impedance, a few hundred ks
to a few Ms) that will limit the current flow.
 However, grounding a person will not drain the static charge from his or
her clothing (nonconductors), or from a plastic object held in the hand,
such as a Styrofoam coffee cup.

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 Static Discharge
 When grounding a person, a hard ground should be avoided.
 The minimum impedance that should be used in grounding a person is
250 k. Grounded wrist straps usually have a 1-M resistance to
ground.
 The higher the resistance, the longer it will take for the charge to bleed
off the object.
 The decay time — the time it takes for the charge to be reduced to 37%
of its initial value:




or    

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 Static Discharge – Decay Time
 Materials with surface resistivities of 109  per square or less can be
discharged rapidly by grounding.
 Static-dissipative materials are preferred to conductive materials
because charge dissipation occurs at a slower rate.
 Antistatic materials are the slowest to dissipate charge. Nevertheless,
they are useful because they can dissipate charge faster than it is
generated and therefore prevent an object from accumulating a charge.
 To prevent triboelectric charging, the surface resistivity of a material
should not exceed 1012  per square.
 Static-dissipative and antistatic materials are the preferred materials to
use in an ESD-sensitive environment, such as a manufacturing line for
electronic equipment.
 Insulators do not dissipate charge but retain whatever charge they have.

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 ESD Protection in Equipment Design
 Effective ESD immunity design requires a three-pronged approach.
1. prevent or minimize the entry of the transient currents by:
 Effective design of the enclosure
 Cable shielding
 Providing transient protection on all conductors of unshielded external cables
2. harden sensitive circuits by:
 Resets
 Interrupts
 Other critical control inputs
3. write transient hardened software capable of detecting, and if possible correcting,
errors in the following:
 Program flow
 Input/output (I/O) data
 Memory
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 ESD Protection in Equipment Design
 Energy from a static discharge can be coupled to an electronic circuit in
two ways:
1. By direct conduction
2. By field coupling, including
a) Capacitive coupling
b) Inductive coupling
 Direct conduction occurs when the discharge current (typically tens of
amperes) flows directly through the sensitive circuit.
 The fast rise time, large voltage, and high current associated with ESD
produces intense electric and magnetic fields.
These fields, although usually not causing damage, are strong enough to
upset the operation of many electronic circuits, even at distances of a
meter or more away from the actual discharge.
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 ESD Protection in Equipment Design
 A circuit or system may be protected from a static discharge by any of
the following:
1. Eliminating the static buildup on the source
2. Insulating the product to prevent a discharge
3. Providing an alternative path for the discharge current to bypass the sensitive circuits
4. Shielding the circuit against the electric fields produced by the discharge
5. Decreasing loop areas to protect the circuit from the magnetic fields produced by the
discharge

 The first three items in the above list deal with controlling the direct
discharge, and the last two items deal with controlling the associated
field coupling.
 ESD-induced effects in electronic systems can be divided into the
following three categories:

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 ESD Protection in Equipment Design
1. Hard errors - cause actual damage to the system hardware.
2. Soft errors - affect system operation but do not cause physical damage.
3. Transient upset - does not cause an error, but the effect is perceptible

 The European Union’s criteria for an ESD failure (Performance Criteria B)

is as follows:
The apparatus shall continue to operate as intended after the test. No degradation of
performance or loss of function is allowed. During the test, degradation of performance
is however allowed. No change of actual operating state or stored data is allowed.

 In other words, transient upset is allowed, but no soft or hard errors are
allowed.
 The first step in designing equipment to be immune to ESD is to prevent
the direct discharge from flowing through the susceptible circuitry.
This can be accomplished either by insulating the circuit or by providing
an alternative path for the discharge current.

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 ESD Protection in Equipment Design
 If insulation is used, it must be complete, because a spark can enter
through an extremely narrow air gap.
 In the case of a product in a metallic enclosure, the enclosure can be
used as an alternative path for the ESD current.
To divert the ESD current effectively from sensitive circuits, all metallic
components of the enclosure must be bonded together. See Fig. 15-8.
 The basic principle of ESD bonding and grounding is to use low-
inductance multipoint bonding where ESD current is desired and single-
point bonding where ESD current flow is not wanted.

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JHLin, AppEMC; Electrostatic Discharge 26
 Preventing ESD Entry
 The three most common points of ESD entry are the enclosure, cables,
and keyboards or control panels.
 Metallic Enclosures –
The major advantage: it can be used as an alternative path for the ESD
current.
The major disadvantage: it encourages a discharge to occur.
 See Fig. 15-9.
 Discontinuities in the enclosure (e.g., seams or holes) can cause
differential voltages to appear on the enclosure as well as allowing ESD
induced fields to couple to the inside of the enclosure (Fig. 15-8). These
enclosure voltages and fields can then couple to the circuit and affect its
operation.
 The enclosure should be as continuous as possible with a minimum
number of seams and apertures.
To minimize ESD field coupling any apertures in the enclosure should 27

h l h f ( )
 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures

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 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 The situation shown in Fig. 15.9 is not a practical configuration, because
the circuit has no connection to anything outside of the enclosure.

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 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 A similar effect occurs if the enclosure is ungrounded. The enclosure
may rise closer to the full potential of the discharge source. Therefore, it
is desirable to ground all metallic enclosures for ESD protection.
 The secondary arc can be prevented by
1. providing sufficient space between all metal parts and the circuit.
2. or by connecting the circuit to the metallic enclosure, thus keeping it at the same
potential as the enclosure.

 The spacing should be sufficient to withstand about 2000 V for a

grounded enclosure and 15,000 V for an ungrounded enclosure.
 The breakdown voltage for air is approximately 3000 V/mm (75,000
V/in) at standard temperature and pressure (STP).

P
Vbreakdown 
T ( K )

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 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 The safe clearance distance to prevent an arc is usually considered to be
about one third of this or 1 mm/kV.

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 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 Even without a secondary arc, the strong electric field produced
between the metallic enclosure and the circuit can cause problems.

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 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 If the circuit is
connected to
the enclosure,
this connection
should be a low-
inductance
connection
made in the I/O
area of the
printed circuit
board (PCB).

JHLin, AppEMC; Electrostatic Discharge 33

 Preventing ESD Entry – Metallic Enclosures
 Because the circuit common is connected to the enclosure, the circuit
potential rises with the enclosure, and no potential difference exists
between points on the circuit or between the circuit and the enclosure.
 What, however, has happened to the high voltage potential on the
enclosure?
It is transferred as a common-mode voltage to the interface cables and
applied to whatever is at the other end of the cables.
The ‘‘classic ESD problem’’ indicates that a discharge is applied to box
‘‘A’’ and damage is done to the circuit in box ‘‘B,’’ or vice versa.

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