[Elecraft] Fw: Anti Static Mats

[Larry Lopez]

They made me take an ESD course
at work and well I have a few comments
I feel forced to make.

Forgive me.

static mats are poor conductors which allow the
charge to equalize slowly.

Humans, in fact are not poor conductors.

So the only purpose of the wrist strap
is to keep you at the same potential
as everything else.

But picking up a static sensitive device
is not safe.  You are a good conductor.
You have much capacity.

Picking up a static sensitive device in a static
bag is ok, placing this on a static matt is ok.
After a bit you the bag and the static mat are
at the same potential so you can open the bag.

The only reason you have a large
value resistor on a wrist strap
is so you don't get electrocuted

So when you take a static sensitive device
and put it on a metal conductor (PC board)
you might have a fast enough discharge to
fry the board.

This subject goes on forever
and some of it is counter intuitive.

When you have a discharge
you might have failures months
or years later.

It may be damaged and it may work fine.
For a while.

I hate mentioning all of this but this is what they
taught us.

Larry

again forgive me.








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