ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

We are working in a very high voltage environment, for the safety of Operator we use rubberized mat, this is also a ESD sensitivity area because where we use lot of ESD sensitive component operator quiet often get severe shock, kindly advice the solution. - Gnag, Bangalore, India

The safety of the operator always comes first, even before ESD protection. If the operator is exposed to high voltage, then we would not recommend personal grounding. If you can totally isolate the high voltage from the operator and ensure their safety, then you might be able to consider ESD control. I’ve seen a solution from a Scandinavian company that first isolated the working area with an insulating floor and then brought ground in with a 66 megohm resistor in series going to the bench. This type of design would need to be done by trained high voltage engineers and an electrician to ensure operator safety before employing ESD control. You always want to keep the maximum potential current level to the operator under 1 milliamp AC or 4 milliamps DC per Section 7.3.1.3, Table VIII, of the standard MIL-STD-454.

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