The level of charge is affected by material type, speed of contact and separation, humidity, and several other factors.
Electrostatic discharge can create catastrophic or latent failures in electronic components.
Electrostatic discharge can occur throughout the manufacturing, test, shipping, handling, or operational processes. Component damage can occur as the result of a discharge from the component as well as a direct discharge to the component. With this basic understanding of ESD and its impact on your environment, you can then begin to develop an effective ESD control program. In this column and the next, we will focus on basic Principles of ESD control. However, the task of designing and implementing ESD control programs becomes less complex if we focus on just four basic Principles of control.