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Q&A Is ESD overhyped?

Something that hasn't been mentioned in other posts yet is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents". That is, they don't damage a part by rendering it non-o...

posted 10mo ago by Lorenzo Donati‭  ·  edited 10mo ago by Lorenzo Donati‭

Answer
#4: Post edited by user avatar Lorenzo Donati‭ · 2023-07-11T17:27:11Z (10 months ago)
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned in other posts yet is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents". That is, they don't damage a part by rendering it non-operative, but they simply degrade its characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when a part is operated near its limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only when it is employed in very sensitive circuits. For example in the first stage of a smartphone antenna amplifier, where a degraded part would make the phone have more problems receiving signals in low coverage areas.
  • + A BJT could have its gain reduced, but you would notice it only in very demanding applications. For example if you use a BJTs required to have,say, hFE>400 in an amplifier whose gain is meant to be 10 thanks to negative feedback, you won't notice much difference between a BJT with hFE=800 and a "degraded" one with hFE=600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation. The only effect could just be that a lighting fixture that was designed for 10000hrs will fail after 8000hrs. This is going to matter only for the poor fellow that purchased that fixture, unless the ESD damage affected *a whole batch of LEDs* and therefore hundreds of fixtures, in which case your nifty fixture will be considered crap by the market, and your company could earn a bad reputation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit. So when that MOSFET is used as a switch do drive a relay it won't usually matter, but if that MOSFET is connected to an input line of a GPIO pin of a MCU in a ultra-low-power application, you could have much increased battery consumption.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events. Your bunch of BC550C BJTs or 2N7000 MOSFETs could rattle in those plastic screw boxes for years (yes, I use them too) and never show any relevant problem. Of course I would never use them to build the safety control circuit for a shiny new Tesla coil experiment.
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned in other posts yet is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents". That is, they don't damage a part by rendering it non-operative, but they simply degrade its characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when a part is operated near its limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only when it is employed in very sensitive circuits. For example in the first stage of a smartphone antenna amplifier, where a degraded part would make the phone have more problems receiving signals in low coverage areas.
  • + A BJT could have its gain reduced, but you would notice it only in very demanding applications. For example if you use a BJTs required to have, say, hFE>400 in an amplifier whose gain is meant to be 10 thanks to negative feedback, you won't notice much difference between a BJT with hFE=800 and a "degraded" one with hFE=600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect once you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation. The only effect could just be that a lighting fixture that was designed for 10000hrs will fail after 8000hrs. This is going to matter only for the poor fellow that purchased that fixture, unless the ESD damage affected *a whole batch of LEDs* and therefore hundreds of fixtures, in which case your nifty fixture will be considered crap by the market, and your company could earn a bad reputation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit. So when that MOSFET is used as a switch to drive a relay it won't usually matter, but if that MOSFET is connected to an input line of a GPIO pin of a MCU in a ultra-low-power application, you could have much increased battery consumption.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events. Your bunch of BC550C BJTs or 2N7000 MOSFETs could rattle in those plastic screw boxes for years (yes, I use them too) and never show any relevant problem. Of course I would never use them to build the safety control circuit for a shiny new Tesla coil experiment.
#3: Post edited by user avatar Lorenzo Donati‭ · 2023-07-11T15:24:47Z (10 months ago)
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned yet in other posts is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents", that is they don't damage a part by render it non-operative, but they simply degrade its characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when they are used near their limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only in very sensitive circuits. For example, a smartphone could have more problems receiving signals in low coverage areas.
  • + A BJT could have its gain degraded, but you would notice it only on very demanding application: if you use negative feedback with BJTs intended to have,say, hFE>400, you won't notice much difference if a BJT had its hFE degraded from 800 to 600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events.
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned in other posts yet is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents". That is, they don't damage a part by rendering it non-operative, but they simply degrade its characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when a part is operated near its limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only when it is employed in very sensitive circuits. For example in the first stage of a smartphone antenna amplifier, where a degraded part would make the phone have more problems receiving signals in low coverage areas.
  • + A BJT could have its gain reduced, but you would notice it only in very demanding applications. For example if you use a BJTs required to have,say, hFE>400 in an amplifier whose gain is meant to be 10 thanks to negative feedback, you won't notice much difference between a BJT with hFE=800 and a "degraded" one with hFE=600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation. The only effect could just be that a lighting fixture that was designed for 10000hrs will fail after 8000hrs. This is going to matter only for the poor fellow that purchased that fixture, unless the ESD damage affected *a whole batch of LEDs* and therefore hundreds of fixtures, in which case your nifty fixture will be considered crap by the market, and your company could earn a bad reputation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit. So when that MOSFET is used as a switch do drive a relay it won't usually matter, but if that MOSFET is connected to an input line of a GPIO pin of a MCU in a ultra-low-power application, you could have much increased battery consumption.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events. Your bunch of BC550C BJTs or 2N7000 MOSFETs could rattle in those plastic screw boxes for years (yes, I use them too) and never show any relevant problem. Of course I would never use them to build the safety control circuit for a shiny new Tesla coil experiment.
#2: Post edited by user avatar Lorenzo Donati‭ · 2023-07-11T08:07:01Z (10 months ago)
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned yet in other posts is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents", that is they don't damage a part by render it non-operative, but they simply degrade their characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when a part is used near their limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only in very sensitive circuits.
  • + A BJT could have its gain degraded, but you would notice it only on very demanding application: if you use negative feedback with BJTs intended to have,say, hFE>400, you won't notice much difference if a BJT had its hFE degraded from 800 to 600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events.
  • Something that hasn't been mentioned yet in other posts is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents", that is they don't damage a part by render it non-operative, but they simply degrade its characteristics.
  • This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when they are used near their limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:
  • + A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only in very sensitive circuits. For example, a smartphone could have more problems receiving signals in low coverage areas.
  • + A BJT could have its gain degraded, but you would notice it only on very demanding application: if you use negative feedback with BJTs intended to have,say, hFE>400, you won't notice much difference if a BJT had its hFE degraded from 800 to 600.
  • + An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation.
  • + A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit.
  • + The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.
  • All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group).
  • All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Lorenzo Donati‭ · 2023-07-11T08:04:04Z (10 months ago) 
Something that hasn't been mentioned yet in other posts is that ESD events needn't be utterly destructive. Most ESD events are "microevents", that is they don't damage a part by render it non-operative, but they simply degrade their characteristics.

This is more evident in parts used for their peculiar characteristics or when a part is used near their limits. Some examples just off the top of my head:

+ A high-frequency low-noise BJT could have its noise figure worsened, and you would notice it only in very sensitive circuits. 

+ A BJT could have its gain degraded, but you would notice it only on very demanding application: if you use negative feedback with BJTs intended to have,say, hFE>400, you won't notice much difference if a BJT had its hFE degraded from 800 to 600.

+ An high efficiency LED could have its lifetime shortened, and you won't notice any effect one you hit, say, the thousands hours of continuous operation. 

+ A MOSFET could have its gate leakage current increased, but that won't affect your circuit unless that MOSFET is used as an input stage of a sensitive measurement circuit.

+ The oxide layer of a MOSFET gate could have been only "scratched" by the ESD event, this meaning that the *next* event is more likely to do destructive damage. Or this could also mean that the maximum GD voltage rating worsened (say, from 30V to 25V). And you won't notice until you use your stock of MOSFETs in an application that comes closer to that limit.


All these kind of "light" ESD events are more subtle and may cause a lot more headaches than destructive events. The fact that these are real problems can be demonstrated by statistical analysis at industrial level, e.g. take two groups of 1000 MOSFETs, expose one to mild ESD events and test them extensively, comparing the results to the first group (the control group). 

All this also to say that most of the times an hobbyist is unlikely to observe the effects of these most common ESD events.