ESD characteristics of a generalized two body system including a ground plane

Capacitance coefficients were measured for a system with two conductors of variable size, positioned at different elevations with respect to a horizontal ground plane. For a constant charge on the source, body potentials and energies were calculated and a comparison was made of the relative probability of a discharge and the severity of the discharge for the various source/sink geometries. Both a fixed-size source model and a fixed-size sink model were analyzed, for cases where the sink was floating or grounded. Positioning the bodies close to a horizontal ground plane decreases both the probability of a discharge and the severity of the discharge in all cases. Potential and energy sensitivity factors were calculated and used to show how the observed results can be interpreted using the changes in the capacitance coefficients of the system. The results provide a better understanding of the basic electrostatic discharge characteristics for simulations involving the human body model and the metallic cart model.<>