Prostat Corporation | ESD Blog

Note: This is an article that appeared in the FAcilities Engineering Journal in the July/August 2014 Edition. You can visit the journal’s website at http://www.afe.org

A person walking across an insulative tile floor can build-up static electricity resulting in electrostatic discharges (ESD). When a hand touches a doorknob, it can take 3000 to 3500 volts to feel a sudden shock. In 1971, Intel’s 4004 microprocessor equaled about 2300 transistors. At the end of 2008, Intel’s Dual Core Itanium 2 smashed the 2 billion transistor equivalency barrier.

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Over the past several years, U.S. based organizations have curtailed traditional internal verification efforts due to reliance on contract manufacturers, distributors and suppliers to do the right thing. The inspection of ESD sensitive parts is very important, but without special safeguards, the additional handling to remove and repack a product for validation can cause both physical and ESD damage in the process. For parts, including those not sensitive to static electricity, measures must be utilized to detect, inspect and validate the packaging that identifies and protects the product.

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