ESD Concerns
ZaidPirwani wrote 09/29/2015 at 10:07 • 1 pointWell, so far I have done a 4 year degree in Electronics and have been using a soldering iron since I was 10 years old... always I have been warned about ESD and protecting my circuits and ICs and stuff, but so far, I have not seen any such problem - or is it that my ICs go bad and I blame some other reason.
So, what actually is it, right now I am working on a Teensy Board and SD Card module and I am on a synthetic carpet floor with no grounding and wooden table top again no ESD mat or such, so what gives... is it cause of the location / humidity / or something entirely else.
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Once a design engineer from Analog Devices told me that the best thing that can happen when aplying static voltages to a device is that the device immedialtely breaks down...
Because the damage done by static discharge is not (usually not) obvious and immediate.
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It isn't always obvious either. Take a ram stick from your PC and measure how much current it draws, fondle it somewhat and measure it again. You will nearly always see a difference. Probably not enough for it to fail right now but it will probably fail prematurely at some time in the future.
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What I meant to say is, I know ESD is BAD - I know it cause stuff to fail.. but so far in all my time of working with Electronics... a good 6+ years which might not be a lot when compared with most of you.. :)
BUT
never used a MAT, never grounded myself (intently), never used proper bags or stuff.
The majority of the electronics shops we have (and we have quite a BIG market in Karachi - called as the Co-operative Market), they all keep everything in small tin boxes, sell them in regular plastic bags, everything cramped together, keep stuff in plastic bottles/jars and boxes.
Maybe it is the atmosphere here in Pakistan or maybe it is because most of the time, we are working with bare feet on the ground (grounding ourselves), so I am just amazed when I see people taking all those precautions. even the Computer markets here and the repair-shops dont follow such procedure (90% of the shops).
So what gives or is it, ESD, a bit more harmful in EU and USA and such areas.. ???? and not in Asia, also see images of many Chinese shops and such wont see much ESD protection there!
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Get an ESD mat to work on and use the right bags if you are dealing with something you don't want to damage (like an expensive project, a product you are selling, etc). Don't go crazy. Just recently saw Limor Fried of Adafruit walking around Maker Faire with a bunch of breakout boards and she didn't clip herself to earth ground before touching them. I bet in her workshop she uses ESD mats though.
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Same for me. I know about ESD precautions, I often ignore them. And maybe twice in 15 years did I possibly pay a price for that. So the risk is small for me, somehow. I do notice that in daily life, I have much less static electricity shocks than for instance my wife. Maybe I've got a more greasy skin type or something :)
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Maybe this helps a bit.
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this includes putting things in normal plastic bags, paper bags and the oh so rare anti-static bags... but I really need to know this guys.
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What's the question? "Is ESD actually harmful"? My guess is that the answer is "it depends", like just about everything else. FWIW, I've never had an issue (that I'm aware of) with ESD, but the premature failure concerns raised above are certainly something to think about. I use a blue anti-static work station that is grounded, but it's mostly to protect my desk and look cool.
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Lots of questions ... 'Normal' plastic bags generate huge amounts of static charge when you first open them because as the two sheets separate they act kind of like a Van De'Graaff generator. They are also a problem when a static charge is applied to a used (opened) bag as the insulated surfaces of the plastic allow static charges to flow easily.
Electronics doesn't necessary fail when it is exposed to static charges, sometimes the damage may cause a failure week, months or years later.
What does all this mean ... most electronic devices are not as sensitive as they used to be but there are exceptions.
CMOS is the one that you need to pay the most attention to but also FET's and even some diodes like LASER diodes.
Most of the common devices that have sensitivity to ESD usually has some protection built in. Like diodes etc. Their ability to protect basically comes down to joules. High joules comes from walking across carpet on a dry (not humid) day.
So YES! -
1) ESD problems do exist
2) it's not as bad as it once was
3) you should adapt working habits to protect ESD sensitive devices
4) Most modern products are fairly ok so you don't have to fuss too much but some are still very sensitive and a full mat and wrist strap is advised
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starting to make sense now... thanks.
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