Why worry about ESD in electronics?

ESD damage in electronics manufacture

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can damage a sensitive electronic component, resulting in failures, reduced reliability and increased rework costs, or latent component  failures in equipment in the field.

The cost of a single ESD failure in the field can be astonishing (see The cost of ESD damage. ) The cost of in-house failures can also be significant, and wastes time and resources. A return of 10:1 or more on investment in ESD measures is quite possible.

Whilst it is difficult to attribute specific failures to ESD damage, most manufacturers prefer to prevent possible damage and reliability problems by storing, assembling and handling equipment under electrostatic safe conditions.  

ESD in electromagnetic compatibility and electronic systems

ESD can cause interference with the operation of electronic systems, or even damage them. Static electricity can build up high voltages in modern operating environments - over 10000V (10 kV) is not uncommon, and over 30 kV has been recorded. A simple action such as a person getting up from a chair can cause a rise in body voltage to 10 kV, and a subsequent ESD to their computer system.

ESD produce fast high current waveforms and fast magnetic (H-field) or electrostatic (E-field) disturbances. These can induce voltages or currents in nearby sensitive circuitry, and corrupt data or cause spurious failures.

Careful design is required to prevent these problems and enable the equipment to conform to the immunity requirements of the EMC Directives.