Analysis of the CAN communication error when applying ESD on the CAN communication harness

When electrostatic discharge (ESD) is applied to the Controller Area Network (CAN) communication harness, the CAN transceiver may be damaged. More often, however, CAN communication errors occur, which are caused by the abnormal turn-on of the CAN transceiver. But most of these CAN communication errors are the result of the CAN transceiver detecting the ESD waveform as a normal signal, not by the snapback of the CAN transceiver. To determine the reasons why a CAN transceiver detects ESD as a normal signal, we first analyzed the bit timing logic (BTL) and the voltage waveforms on the CAN differential pair induced by ESD. Additionally, the inductance and capacitance of the test setup were analyzed to determine the contribution of these factors to CAN communication errors. Finally, based on these analysis, both software and hardware solutions to these communication errors are proposed.