Need for circuit ESD general advice

[bittware]

Does anyone out there have some successful practice of circuit ESD design?
Any comment is welcome!

 

[alphi]

EDN have simple ESD gan circuit

 

[DoctorProf]

Are you looking for Board level ESD protection or integrated circuit level ESD protection?

 

[bittware]

I'd like to know board level ESD protection general skill.Could you give me some good advice. Useful links are also appreciated.

 

[DoctorProf]

I'm not as familar with board level ESD protection as I am with IC level protection.

The traces that interface with things off the board are the ones most likely to take a hit from ESD. These may require special protection elements. There are a number of dedicated ESD circuits that are placed in parallel with the active circuit.

The use of MOV or SCR type devices on some pins for over voltage protection may work. One company I'm aware of that offers some MOV's and SCR's for over voltage protection is www.littlefuse.com. Look at the SP720.

Decoupling caps on the board help from an ESD perspective. These act as a low impedance shut. HBM uses a 100pF cap as the charge source. A 0.1uF up to 10uF cap can absorb all of the 100pF charge without raising the voltage significantly. The only think you have to worry about is the series resistanc getting to the caps. This would induce a voltage that could damage components if it was too high.


A good Zener diode my be a good option for transient protection also.

Hope this helps.