Study on the verification standard of electrostatic discharge generators (acc. IEC 61000-4-2)

Through systemic study on two types of electrostatic discharge (ESD), generators and the effects of discharge switch to ESD immunity test; it has been found that the verification of ESD generators presents a number of problems. The experimental results show that ESD generators from different manufactures yield different results while testing products, even if the discharge currents are quite similar. This means that it is incomplete that the IEC 61000-4-2 only specifies the values of the characteristics of the discharge current of the ESD generator during the verification procedure. To resolve this problem, besides ESD current waveform, the IEC 61000-4-2 standard should specify discharge current derivative, transient field, and induced voltages in detail.