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> The EMC
Blog

An EMC troubleshooting kit - part 3 (detecting ESD)

Kenneth
Wyatt -June 22, 2012

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This is a continuation of a description of my EMC troubleshooting kit. In
this next installment, I’ll describe tools I use to detect ESD events. Because
ESD is quite transient in nature, it can be difficult to correlate specific
events to product upset.

In my experience, electrostatic discharge (ESD) issues have now become the
second-most prevalent issue other than radiated emissions. In many cases, if you
find your product has strange upsets - for example loss of data or unusual
circuit resets - it could very well be caused by ESD. During the development of
HP’s early logic analyzers, the designers noticed that the prototypes would
false trigger randomly. It was eventually noted that the triggering would occur
when nearby engineers stood up from their chairs (so called, furniture
discharge) or when employees walked by their cube on the carpeting along the
aisles. In this case, I placed a commercial ESD detector in the cube where the
false triggering was occurring and we were able to confirm and correlate the
events. In fact, the ESD detector would count hundreds of discharge events per
day. Obviously, the R&D development area was not in a very ESD-protected
area!

So, besides spending about $1k for a commercial ESD detector, how can you
detect ESD a little more cheaply? It turns out an AM broadcast radio, tuned
off-station, is very sensitive to ESD events. I found one used at a swapfest for
$5 and have used it successfully as an ESD detector. It also works well for any
low-frequency emission detection, including that put out by CFL and LED light
bulbs as well as other power supply switching circuitry. If you can find one
with an FM broadcast receiver, you may be able to tune in product harmonics from
radiated emissions.

Figure 1 - An AM/FM broadcast radio, when tuned off-station in the AM
band, works well as an ESD detector. It can detect ESD events from several
feet away.

The AM radio does well at detecting events, but wouldn’t it be nice if you
could build up a simple circuit to not only detect ESD, but beep when it
occurred, as well as to count the events? I found a circuit for a “Lightning
Detector” that also works quite well for detecting ESD. I added additional
circuitry to light an LED and activate a piezoelectric “beeper”. I also found a
low-cost digital totalizer with manual reset to tally events over a particular
time period.

Figure 2 - A simple DIY ESD detector with flashing LED, a beeper and
digital totalizer. The design is based on a lightning detector circuit
obtainable from the internet.

Details on the construction may be obtained from my web site. The digital totalizer is a surplus Omron
H7EC-series, available used from a number of sources for about $30. The other
components are available from your local Radio Shack or other electronics
supplier.

Figure 3 - This is the basic circuit for the DIY ESD detector. I added
additional circuitry for the flashing LED, beeper and digital
totalizer.

The circuit is based on a simple lightning detector designed by Charles
Wenzel and written up later by Bob Radmore in the April 2002 issue of QST
Magazine. It was since improved by Wenzel and described on his Web site: http://www.techlib.com/electronics/lightning.html. With a
three-foot telescoping antenna, the unit can detect ESD events from several feet
away. I also use this during the ESD demos for my seminars and other
presentations.

The next installment will describe what I use to simulate radiated immunity.
Stay tuned!

Related postings:

Related postings:

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 1a (Emissions)

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 1b (Emissions)

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 2 (ESD Immunity)

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 3 (Detecting ESD)

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 4 (Radiated Immunity)

Troubleshooting Kit - Part 5 (Summary & Parts List)

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