Accumulated Damage from Thousands of Small ESD Events. A SKYPE presentation

When:
May 1, 2019 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm America/New York Timezone
2019-05-01T18:00:00-04:00
2019-05-01T21:00:00-04:00
Where:
Bose Corporation
100 The Mountain Road
Framingham
MA

Electromagnetic Compatibility Society

Accumulated Damage from Thousands of Small ESD Events. A SKYPE presentation

Doug Smith, EMC Consultant

We test devices and systems with a relatively few large ESD hits and see if the equipment fails or not, on the order of a few hundred ESD hits for an IEC 61000-4-2 test of a system. But what happens if we subject a system to thousands or tens of thousands of small ESD events. Such events happen every time two conductors come in contact except under special conditions of ESD control.

Applying small stresses to circuits can help predict circuit failure in the field at both the IC and PCB level. Accumulating damage has been demonstrated from thousands of very small ESD events resulting in field failure. In addition, application of small ESD like stresses can also find weak spots in a design that can lead to soft errors as well as damage. These topics and related issues will be discussed with examples and stories from the field to give context to the principles covered. Also discussed will be a new E-field probe optimized for debugging circuits as opposed to EMC measurements. When used in a small amplitude ESD-like generator, one can find E-field pulsed immunity problems in designs.

ESD simulators are not appropriate for generating the pulses because of a limited life mechanical relay used. That relay also does not deliver a continuous ESD pulse at low voltages. Drop-outs in the waveform will affect the results so a different simulator is needed. Some of the requirements on this new simulator will be discussed.

Doug will not be on-premises, but will be communicating live by Skype. Questions will have live responses.

Biography: Mr. Smith held an FCC First Class Radiotelephone license by age 16 and a General Class amateur radio license at age 12. He received a B.E.E.E. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969 and an M.S.E.E. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1970. In 1970, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff. He retired in 1996 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. From February 1996 to April 2000 he was Manager of EMC Development and Test at Auspex Systems in Santa Clara, CA. Mr. Smith currently is an independent consultant specializing in high frequency measurements, circuit/system design and verification, switching power supply noise and specifications, EMC, and immunity to transient noise. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a former member of the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors.

Meeting Details: The meeting of the EMC Society will be held on Wednesday May 1, 2019 at Bose Corp., 100 The Mountain Road, Framingham, MA. The remote style, live technical presentation will commence at 7:00PM following a social hour at 6:00 PM. Food is provided.

DIRECTIONS TO BOSE CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS: The address is;100 The Mountain Road, Framingham, MA, 01701 From Mass Pike (I-90); Take Exit 12 (Route 9 West) toward Worcester. Keep left at the fork on the ramp and get on Route 9 West. At the first set of lights take a right onto California Ave. (sign reads “Framingham Technology Park”). Go straight, over the railroad tracks, and through the next set of lights. The road curves around to a stop sign at the foot of the mountain. Take a left onto the Mountain Road and follow it to the next stop sign at the top of the mountain. The tall glass building before you is the Bose Corporate Center. Take a right at the stop sign, drive to the front of the Corporate Center and park. For more information, please contact Mike Royer at Michael_Royer@bose.com