Electrostatic Discharge - Part One : What is ESD?

Have you ever walked across a plush, fuzzy carpet with your socks on, only to touch someone else and hear them yell out "Ouch! You shocked me!"? Or maybe your kids can be found scooting across the floor in their slippers only to attack you with that jolt of electricity? This is called Electrostatic Discharge or ESD for short. Electrostatic Discharge occurs everywhere, all of the time, but most of the time, we simply aren't aware of it. Just by walking across a carpeted floor, you can generate up to 15,000 volts (or more)!

Imagine what that "shock" could do to an electrical device. Have you ever seen that little blue arc that occurs when you shock someone? Depending on a variety of factors, that shock can generate quite a large number of volts and has the potential to negatively affect electronics.

Now, when applying this information to the electronic industry, such as Combotronics serves, you might be able to figure why ESD might play an important role in our daily activities and work.

Even a small jolt can damage an item such as a circuit board. Since many of the products Combotronics works on come from some type of computerized machine, we know that we have to take some precautions to prevent our staff from "shocking" an item and possibly doing more damage to the equipment.

ESD “events”, as they are called, happen when two materials are in contact and then separated, negatively charged electrons move from the surface of the first material to the other. One material will lose electrons and become positively charged, while the other material will gain electrons and become negatively charged. This process is the Triboelectric Charge.

The amount of the charge or the strength of it will depend on the materials and other factors, such as humidity. Once the triboelectric charge has been created on a material, it becomes the "electrostatic charge". Once the Triboelectric charge becomes an electrostatic charge, it creates the "shock" we feel when we are wearing our wool socks on the carpet and touch someone else.

Hopefully, you can now understand why Combotronics would need to consider ESD in our work. Stay tuned for part two of this series “What Helps Control ESD?”

*You can find tons more information on Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) from the Electrostatic Discharge Association at http://www.esda.org/esd_fundamentals.html