ESD qualification data used as the basis for building electrostatic discharge protected areas

•HBM and CDM qualification information based on withstand voltage are not accurate to estimate ESD risks in EPA.•There are additional event types in EPA known as: HMM, CBE, CDE and EMI that have caused electrical failures.•All discharge parameters are needed for risk estimation, such as source capacitance, voltage, parasitic inductances and capacitances, etc.•The additional ESD event types can be controlled with advanced charge, voltage and EMI detection methods.•Standards should be updated to cover all found ESD event types to fully protect electronic devices in EPA.

ESD control programs that are based on the standards IEC61340-5-1 and ANSI/ESD S20.20 are targeted to provide safer handling of electronic parts now susceptible to damage by electrostatic discharge. However, ESD failures have occurred in EPA even when all standard control methods are met. To further improve EPAs, ESD control programs should be updated to cover all known common discharge scenarios, and multiple parallel ESD source parameters should be used to assess the level of ESD risks. In addition, a reliable ESD risk assessment should be based on discharge source circuit analysis and product sensitivity tests using the real discharge waveforms found in EPA.