What Is Electrostatic Discharge or ESD? Get Know How To Do Control For Protecting IT Equipment

In data centers and computer rooms with huge IT equipment, ESD flooring is mandatory. What is ESD and why we must pay attention to it. In this article let us go through the Electrostatic discharge.

What is Electrostatic discharge or ESD?

Electrostatic discharge or ESD (international industrial term to define electrostatic discharge), is defined as the transfer of charge between bodies at different electrical potentials. Since the loads are below the threshold of human sensation, they are responsible for damaging the electronic components of IT equipment (in most IT equipment they can be damaged with loads as low as 10 volts).

How are ESDs created?

Once charges are created in a material and remain at rest, they become "electrostatic charges." An ESD event is a rapid transfer of charges (electrons) from one object to another in an attempt to become an electrically neutral element.

The quantity and type of charges (positive or negative) depend on the materials involved, such as the following:

• Common plastic bags

• Packaging tapes

• Documents

• Untreated plastic materials

• Polyethylene materials

• Types of ESD failures

The Harm of ESD Failures To IT Equipment

ESD failures in IT equipment can be of the upset (Minimum) or Catastrophic (Catastrophic) type.

UPSET failures: they occur when the electrostatic discharges have caused a current flow that is not important enough to cause a total failure (But after the passage of time it can cause a software malfunction or incorrect information storage).

CATASTROPHIC failures: Occur when a component is damaged to the point where it no longer functions properly (These types of failures are difficult to detect and can be direct or latent).

How To Do ESD Control?

EDS control is simple, it is based on the following principles:

Ground connection

The ground connection is a means of draining the electrostatic charges present in a medium, for this the following measures must be taken:

• Use of devices that generate ground connection of each of the IT equipment

• Use of a grounded wrist strap for handling IT equipment

• Establish a common Grounding point on the workstation

Isolation

• Insulation consists of packaging IT equipment with insulation material during storage or transport.

• The use of anti-static building materials in the environment, such as anti-static raised floors.

• Electrostatic discharge cannot penetrate gaskets that are made of insulating materials (this effect is called the Faraday cage).

Note:

These gaskets can carry electrostatic charges on the outside so it is imperative that these protective gaskets only open on a protected workstation with a ground connection.

Prevention

Proper use and application of ESD control materials are not the only weapons to minimize ESD. A series of rules are shown below for the prevention of electrostatic discharges:

• Do not enter ESD sensitive areas without taking proper precautions

• Periodically check the common grounding and grounding of IT equipment

• Unpack ESD-sensitive IT equipment into a secure workstation

• Keep jobs clean and free of unnecessary material (especially common plastics)

• Place ESD sensitive IT equipment on an electrostatic charge dissipation flooring

• Do not bring ESD sensitive IT equipment close to the clothing you are wearing. Even if an insulating strap is used, your body is grounded, but your clothing is not.