Secret to Eliminating ESD Damage? Read Your Datasheet

Secret to Eliminating ESD Damage? Read Your Datasheet

The scourge of electronic devices -- electrostatic discharge (ESD) -- can be virtually eliminated by designers doing one simple task: reading their datasheets.

Experts advise to read them slowly, carefully, and all the way down to the fine print. Don't overlook a single word, they say. The result could be the elimination of functional failure, shock, or even fire in an electronic device.

"Sometimes designers move too fast and assume they know what something means," Chad Marak, director of technical marketing for Littelfuse Inc., said in an interview. "But without reading all the way down to the fine print, they may find out that the information on that datasheet doesn't mean what they think it means."

A typical IEC 61000-4-2 ESD waveform is characterized by its sub-nanosecond rise time and its short (~100 ns) duration.
(Source: Littelfuse Inc.)
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