ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

If an ESD Workstation has a grounded wrist strap to a table mat, is protective floor matting required, or is one ground point sufficient? –Diamy G. Dunton, Miami, FL

If the moderate level ESD Sensitive devices are exposed and handled at the workbench on the grounded mat and the operator wear the wrist strap that is grounded to the common point ground located on the mat (so the mat, common point ground and wrist strap are all at the same potential) then a floor mat is not necessary. If the ESD Sensitive devices have a sensitivity class of “0” (zero), then greater precautions may need to be taken. If an operator must un-ground their wrist strap to move to another location while handling or near exposed ESD Sensitive devices, then ESD foot wear and ESD floor may be necessary.T ypically, ESD mats have two properties, dissipative and antistatic. It is the latter that minimizes the charges generated on the body when shuffling, scuffing or walking on the feet and a good reason to use them for very sensitive areas or when the body is not tethered with a wrist strap in conjunction with foot grounders or ESD shoes.

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