Measurement methodology for establishing an IC ESD sensitivity database

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can disturb ICs and lead to soft-errors in electronic devices. If every IC is characterized by the manufacturer for its ESD sensitivity, the levels at which the IC will be disturbed can be expected. In this paper, a method to establish such ESD sensitivity database on transient field sensitivity of ICs in typical electronic systems by different manufacturers is introduced. The database is aimed to sufficiently represent the behaviours of ICs, then ESD related field coupled problems at a certain location within a system can be estimated. Probes and field injection methods of both electric field and magnetic field are presented.