Questions And Answers

Thank you for contacting us about controlling electrostatic charges to limit ESD or ElectroStatic Discharges which is increasingly important when handling electronic components and assemblies.

The ESD Association has approved and published a standard covering the development of an ESD control program. It is ANSI/ESD S20.20: Development of an Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. The standard covers the requirements necessary to design, establish, implement, and maintain an ESD control program to protect electrical or electronic parts, assemblies and equipment susceptible to ESD damage from Human Body Model (HBM) discharges greater than or equal to 100 volts. See www.ESDA.org for a no-charge download of this document. You will need to register, but it is available as a no-charge download written in Chinese at http://www.esda.org/documents/S20.20CHINESE_000.pdf

The basics of ESD control are to define the ESD protected area, identify all ESD sensitive items, and train personnel in ESD procedures.

The fundamental ESD control principles that form the basis of ANSI/ESD S20.20 are:

A. All conductors in the environment, including personnel, to be grounded.

B. Necessary non-conductors (insulators) to be removed from the ESD protected area or should use ionization to neutralize charges on the necessary non-conductive items.

C. Transportation of ESD sensitive items outside an ESD protected area should be packaged in low charging and static discharge shielding materials.