Comparison of ESD from metal sphere electrodes and tribocharged insulators of both polarities using two ESD probes

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is an important source of accidental ignitions in process industries and damage to semiconductor electronic devices. There is a need to understand the time-varying ESD event and interaction between ESD probe and source in order to understand the important parameters in ESD measurements for evaluation of these phenomena. This paper compares measured peak current, waveform, risetime and charge transferred in ESD from charged isolated spherical conductors with and without a ground plane (spark), and triboelectrically charged polyethylene and polyamide samples (brush discharge). Measurements made using two recently developed ESD probes are compared.