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Introduction
Electrostatic Discharge, or ESD, is defined as the transfer of charge between bodies at different electrical potentials. If you scuff your feet as you walk across a carpet, electrons move from the carpet to you, leaving you with excess electrons. Touch a door knob and ZAP! The electrons move from you to the knob. You get a shock, at a minimum of 3,000 volts (the threshold of human feeling)! The kind of ESD shock you feel may also be responsible for damaging electronic components in many computers and telecommunications systems. While it takes an electrostatic discharge of 3,000 volts for you to feel a shock, much smaller charges, well below the threshold of human sensation, can and often do damage semiconductor devices. Many of the more sophisticated electronic components can be damaged by charges as low as 10 volts.
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