An ultra wide band test system to test the transient electric fields and magnetic fields generated by electrostatic discharge (ESD)

An ultra wide band test system consisted of a custom ultra-wide band E-field antenna and H-field antenna with wide band oscilloscope and VXI systems were used to test the transient electromagnetic field generated by an electrostatic discharge (ESD). Many tests were carried out on a real charged human body discharging to the ground. The results show that the electric field at a distance of 10 cm from a human holding a metal pen with a potential of 2 kV discharging to ground is 410 V/m and the magnetic field is 28 A/m at a distance of 3 cm from the discharge. The band of the field is extremely wide, ranging from several MHz to above 1 GHz. An electrostatic discharge is also one of the most common harmful electromagnetic sources for electronic equipment.