07506C DCN6727 91

Chapter 10

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.

How Static Charges Are Created

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
Makes
Contact
PROTONS = 3
ELECTRONS = 3
NET CHARGE = 0
PROTONS = 3
ELECTRONS = 3
NET CHARGE = 0
Materials
Separate
+
PROTONS = 3
ELECTRONS = 2
NET CHARGE = -1
+
PROTONS = 3
ELECTRONS = 4
NET CHARGE = +1
Figure 10-1
Triboelectric Charging