ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

Is there a way of simulating an ESD-damage to an electronic circuit for educational purpose? My idea is to have a simple functioning circuit, expose it to ESD then being able to point out a malfunction that has been caused by the ESD. - Sven Hedblom, G„vle L„romedia, G„vle, Sweden

Yes, there is a rather simple test you can do. Get a test fixture box (basically setup with a socket for an IC and all the pinouts have external connections like banana jacks) and insert a simple FET or CMOS chip into the socket. Place a voltmeter across the power rails of the IC. Attach the ground of the IC to a large isolated metal plate fairly close to the IC. Power up the rails on the IC. Then use a static generator like our ESD paddles to generate a few kilovolts on the paddles. Take the metal paddle and touch the metal plate. There will be an ESD event which should trigger a catastrophic response in the IC. When this happens, the voltmeter's reading will change (from say 10 volts to 0 volts).

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