The Effect of Approach Speed and Charge Voltage on an Air Discharge

In this paper, a new electrostatic discharge (ESD) testing system is designed and the influence of the approach speed and charge voltage on ESD parameters, e.g., discharge current, rise time, and induced voltage in a semicircular loop antenna, and also the reproducibility of experimental results are analyzed. It is concluded that, as the charge voltage is constant, ESD parameters are linearly proportional to the approach speed, the reproducibility increases with growth of the approach speed, especially at 0.8 m/s. As the approach speed is constant, the field strength generated at low charge voltage is stronger than that at high charge voltage; better reproducibility can be also reached at low charge voltage. These important conclusions provide the foundation for developing standard method for air ESD immunity tests.