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Primer on Electro -

Static Discharge

Teledyne API considers the prevention of damage caused by the discharge of static electricity to be extremely important part of making sure that your analyzer continues to provide reliable service for a long time. This section describes how static electricity occurs, why it is so dangerous to electronic components and assemblies as well as how to prevent that damage from occurring.

H o w S t a t i c C h a r g e s A r e C r e a t e d

Modern electronic devices such as the types used in the various electronic assemblies of your analyzer, are very small, require very little power and operate very quickly. Unfortunately, the same characteristics that allow them to do these things also make them very susceptible to damage from the discharge of static electricity. Controlling electrostatic discharge begins with understanding how electro-static charges occur in the first place.

Static electricity is the result of something called triboelectric charging which happens whenever the atoms of the surface layers of two materials rub against each other. As the atoms of the two surfaces move together and separate, some electrons from one surface are retained by the other.

Materials

 

 

 

Materials

Makes

 

 

 

Separate

Contact

 

 

 

 

+

+

+

+

PROTONS = 3

 

PROTONS = 3

 

PROTONS = 3

 

PROTONS = 3

 

 

ELECTRONS = 2

 

ELECTRONS = 4

ELECTRONS = 3

 

ELECTRONS = 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

NET CHARGE = -1

 

NET CHARGE = +1

NET CHARGE = 0

 

NET CHARGE = 0

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 10-1

Triboelectric Charging

07506C DCN6727

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Teledyne 651 operation manual Primer on Electro Static Discharge, W S t a t i c C h a r g e s a r e C r e a t e d