VIDEO SERIES
Getting started with interface protection
ESD (electrostatic discharge) and surge transients are some of the most common events to plague ICs. However, just because your system is likely to encounter an event doesn’t mean that decisions related to protection should be rushed. We’ve put together two series of trainings to cover critical considerations regarding ESD and surge. Watch all of the short videos in order for a comprehensive overview, or learn at your own pace and choose the specific topic you need a refresher on.
ESD Essentials: What is electrostatic discharge (ESD)?
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Welcome to the ESD Essentials video series, which will cover the fundamentals of electrostatic discharge protection.
This video provides a basic introduction to electrostatic discharge, or ESD for short, and presents a high-level explanation of how to protect system circuitry against ESD.
In the following short videos, we will cover several parameters that need to be considered when selecting ESD protection, starting with the ESD working voltage, or reverse standoff voltage. This will be followed by a video covering the IEC 61000-4-2 standard.
The clamping voltage of an ESD diode is a measurement of protection performance, and will be covered in the subsequent video. After, that we will explain the effects of diode capacitance on signal integrity, and we will close a series by going through the steps of selecting the right ESD diode. You can find these videos and more at TI.com/ESD.
So what is electrostatic discharge? All objects can accumulate electric charge by coming into contact with other objects. The human skin, for example, typically accumulates positive charge when another object scrapes off loosely-bound electrons from the skin surface, due to friction.
When this positively charged object comes into close proximity with a conductor, electrons will transfer suddenly from the conductor to the positively charged object. This sudden transfer is known as electrostatic discharge. And you've probably felt the effects of it when you've touched a metal object after walking on a carpet.
Typical ESD events can discharge thousands of volts of electricity, which can be damaging to sensitive semiconductors and integrated circuits.
ESD can be introduced to a system circuitry through interface connectors that are exposed to the outside world. When charged objects, such as humans, come into close contact with interface connectors, ESD current can be discharged onto the PCB traces, which could damage and destroy important system circuitry.
To prevent damage to a system, ESD protection diodes can be placed close to the interface connector. As a result, when ESD is discharged onto the traces, the ESD protection diode will steer the current to ground and protect the circuitry behind it.
Thank you for watching. To keep learning more about ESD, watch your next video on ESD working voltage. For more details on ESD in general, go to TI.com/ESD.
