ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

I have to use safety glasses in a clean room environment for micro chip processing. What are the requirements concerning ESD with safety glasses in a cleanroom? Do you know of any body who sells safety glasses who deals with the ESD aspect? What are plastics made of to eliminate the ESD problem? The glasses have to be clean and to accomplish this the glasses have to be exposed to Gamma Radiation for a few seconds or we could use a process called autoclaving. How does this affect the ESD build up on the glasses? - Christopher Chambers, Dittman & Greer, Barrington, RI

I do not have any contacts for ESD safety glasses. You can apply a topical treatment to the surface of the glasses to make them anti-static and dissipative, but this may not be compatible with your cleanroom requirements. The only problem you may experience with insulative safety glasses is a source for charge induction. If the glasses become charged and are insulative, then the charge will remain on the glasses. If an ESD Sensitive (ESDS) device comes into close proximity (< 12 inches) then any isolated (ungrounded) conductors making up the ESDS device may become charge through charge induction and put the device at risk. There are three solutions: don’t bring any ESDS devices within 1 foot of the safety glasses, employ a local ionizer directed at the glasses to neutralize any charges, or apply a topical antistat/dissipative material to the safety glasses (may not be compatible for some clean rooms).

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