Contents
What is ESD and ESD protection?
An ESD protection device protects a circuit from an Electrostatic discharge (ESD), in order to prevent a malfunction or breakdown of an electronic device.
Is ESD protection necessary?
Protecting against the effects of electrostatic discharge is an essential requirement for any manufacture, home construction, service, repair and any other area in contact with electronic boards and components.
How do you create an ESD protection?
The key to the ESD design guidelines for protecting the devices on any external Input / Output (I / O) lines, is to prevent the voltage rising above a level that will damage the interface device. This may be achieved using a circuit that clamps the maximum voltages to just outside the maximum operating extremes.
Which is the highest level of IEC ESD protection?
The IEC 61000-4-2 standard specifies four levels of voltage ratings, with level 4 being the highest (Table 1). For most applications, level 4 IEC ESD protection (8kV contact/15kV air gap) is sufficient.
What are the different types of ESD ratings?
The IEC 61000-4-2 standard includes two different ratings for ESD that you can generally find on data sheets: contact voltage discharge (ESD directly discharged onto the device) and air-gap voltage discharge (ESD discharged onto the device through a gap of air).
How to prevent electrostatic discharge ( ESD ) during manufacture?
Protection during manufacture. In addition, it is important to prevent ESD when an electrostatic discharge sensitive component is connected with other conductive parts of the product itself. An efficient way to prevent ESD is to use materials that are not too conductive but will slowly conduct static charges away.
What does ESD stand for in electrical terms?
ESD (electrostatic discharge)—the sudden andmomentary electric current that flows betweentwo objects at different electrical potentials—causes equipment failure and network downtime,thus causing production losses of multiple billionsof dollars annually.