Articles

E-mail RSS

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Technical Considerations For Controlling ESD In Electronics Manufacturing

ESD impacts productivity and product reliability in virtually every aspect of electronic environment. Despite the effort made over the past decade, ESD still costs the electronics industry billions of dollars every year. Industry experts attribute an estimated 8 to 33% of all product losses to be caused by ESD. The individual cost of these devices themselves range from a few cents for a simple diode to several hundred dollars for complex hybrids. However, ESD damage affects more than just the loss of devices. It affects production yields, manufacturing costs, product quality and reliability, customer relationships, and ultimately, profitability.

For today's automated facilities, conventional methods of ESD control must be re-examined and new methods applied. Automated assembly equipment is capable of processing 4,000 to 20,000 components an hour. At these speeds, poorly designed equipment that is allowed to charge devices can damage large amounts of components in a very short amount of time. Perhaps even more importantly, an ESD event can in turn damage the automated equipment.

ESD generates a signifi cant amount of electromagnetic interference (EMI). The EMI resulting from an ESD event is often powerful enough to interrupt the operation of the production equipment. Equipment controlled by microprocessors is especially susceptible to damage as they operate in the same frequency range as the EMI from ESD events. Often mistaken for a software error or glitch in the system, EMI can cause a variety of equipment operating problems, such as stoppages, software errors, testing, and calibration inaccuracies as well as mishandling. All can cause signifi - cant physical component damage and affect production yields. The affects of EMI tend to be random in nature and can affect equipment across the room, but leave the equipment where the ESD event occurred untouched. This can make the location of the ESD event diffi cult to locate.

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Technical Considerations For Controlling ESD In Electronics Manufacturing