An automated approach for real time diagnostics of electrical and optical parameters for ESD events at triple junction

Environment consisting of charged particles leads to an electrostatic discharge (arcs) on the surface of dielectric material. Simulating such environment in laboratory requires the expertise of plasma physics, vacuum technology and advanced instrumentation. Various electrical and optical discharge parameters are important for understanding arc behavior and developing a mitigation technique against it's deteriorating effects like change in material properties and decrease in substrate's life. A real time controller can be used for measuring all these parameters. In order to measure feeble arcs of few microseconds, its voltage and current signals are measured using high speed digitizer. Arc voltage signal is used to trigger a CCD camera for capturing arc image and hence locating its position on the substrate's surface. Both electrical and optical signals are measured simultaneously with high precision. Gradual rise in surface potential which is responsible for ESD, can be measured by scanning entire substrate's surface at regular time intervals. A non-contact capacitive Trek probe which is carried by a stage controller is used for this measurement. For these measurements, an advanced data acquisition, logging and analysis system is developed using LabVIEW platform. The scope of this paper is limited to on-line measurement of electrical and optical signals of an ESD event using RT and transferring them to host system. A specific case of discharges on solar panel is considered for experimental validation of the developed algorithm.