PACKAGE ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE (ESD) SUSCEPTABILITY

SINCE THE EARLY 1960'S, IT HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED THAT "ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE" (ESD) CAN DAMAGE ELECTRONIC PARTS. WITH THE PROGRESSIVE MICROMINIATURIZATION OF ELECTRONICS, MORE AND MORE PARTS BECOME SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE FROM ESD. THE TREND TOWARDS GREATER MICROMINIATURIZATION AND MORE COMPLEX DEVICES (E.G., VLSI AND VHSI) WILL RESULT IN ESD BECOMING AN EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM IN THE FUTURE.TODAY MOST MICROCIRCUITS, LOW POWER DISCRETE SEMICONDUCTORS, AND THICK AND THIN FILM DEVICES ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE FROM ESD. THIS DAMAGE CAN OCCUR DURING MANUFACTURE, ASSEMBLY, TEST, HANDLING, OR USE OF THE COMPONENT OR ASSEMBLY. THE DETERMINATION OF SENSITIVITY BY PACKAGE TYPE COULD RESULT IN USING THE LEAST SENSITIVE PACKAGE TYPE AND REDUCING OVERALL DAMAGE TO ESD SENSITIVE DEVICES. DETERMINATION OF PACKAGE SENSITIVITY REQUIRES CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS AND DETERMINATION OF RELATIVE AGNITUDE OF ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE, FIELD STRENGTH DEVICE ORIENTATION, MATERIALS AND GROUNDING OF SURFACES ON WHICH DEVICES ARE TESTED.