Development of a Human Electrostatic Discharge Model in Relation to Electronic Systems

Electrostatic Discharge ESD in this paper pertains to understanding the processes of electrical charge buildup on a human being or other conductive shape, followed by a discharge into another conductor such as an electronic device. Several megawatts of peak power may be involved. In order to design and test for ESD, it is necessary to establish the electrical characteristics of the electrostatic buildup and discharge circuit. Crude models of a human being electronic equipment system for ESD were developed by the author in previous papers. This paper further develops the modeling process to include a large metallic ground plane, under the facility floor covering, connected to earth. Also, the effects of hand-held sharp radii metallic objects are examined. From the circuit parameters, approximate wave shapes of the discharge are computed for various cases. Much work has been done in actual laboratory measurements of electrostatic discharge phenomena in order to properly design test equipment to simulate an actual discharge as accurately as possible. However, it is believed by the author that mathematical modeling of the system is essential.