Introduction
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) might sound like a complex technical term, but it's something that impacts all of us, especially in our increasingly digital world. ESD can cause significant damage to electronic devices, leading to costly repairs and data loss. At IONA Tech, we're committed to advancing the field of ESD mitigation with cutting edge measurement equipment. In this series, we'll explore the electrostatic principles behind ESD and how our technology is set to change the game.
What is ESD?
ESD is the sudden flow of electric charge between two objects that have unequal voltages. This rapid transfer of charge can damage sensitive electronic components, leading to failures or malfunctions.
Why Does ESD Matter?
In industries where precision electronics are paramount, such as aerospace, medical devices, and semiconductor manufacturing, ESD can lead to catastrophic failures. Even in everyday life, ESD can damage our phones, laptops, and other gadgets.
The Traditional Approach to ESD Mitigation
Traditionally, ESD mitigation focuses on ensuring proper grounding of objects and personnel. To ensure compliance, most measurements assess the resistance of path to ground or the electric potential of objects. While this approach has been the industry standard for years, it doesn't account for the complex distribution of electrostatic charge, which is the real culprit behind ESD events.
Did you know it is entirely possible for an operator to have a damaging ESD event, even while properly grounded through a wrist strap?
A few things need to line up for this to happen, but yes, your colleague could fry that $10,000 FPGA or that critical GPU in your Machine Learning cluster, even while they have properly kept their body voltage at 0V.
A thorough explanation for this involves Gauss’s law, Poisson’s equation, and a history of electric field mills (stay tuned!). The short answer is that the induced charge on an ungrounded PCB can result in a catastrophic discharge to grounded objects, such as the operator’s soldering iron. Neither traditional constant wrist strap monitors or a body voltage testing kit will identify this ESD liability. For this reason, it is important not only to assess the quality of connections to ground, but also ensure there is no charge present anywhere near susceptible electronics.
Stay Tuned
In our next post, we'll dive deeper into the principles of electrostatics and explain why measuring charge is more effective than just measuring voltage. Stay with us to learn about IONA Tech’s new technology that sheds light onto hidden ESD monster that hides behind every electronics bench.
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