This guide describes the electromagnetic threat posed to electronic equipment and subassemblies by actual electrostatic discharge (ESD) events from humans and mobile furnishings. This guide organizes existing data on the subject of ESD in order to charaterize the ESD surge environment. This guide is not an ESD test standard. It is intended to be a resource for equipment designers, and for preparers and users of ESD test standards. The manufacturing, handling, packaging, and transportation of individual electronic components, including integrated circuits, are not discussed, and this guide does not deal with mobile items such as automobiles, aircraft, and other masses of comparable size.

The purpose of this guide is to describe the electromagnetic threat posed to electronic equipment and subassemblies by actual Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) events from humans and mobile furnishings. This guide organizes existing data on the subject of ESD in order to characterize the ESD surge environment. This guide is not an ESD test standard. An appropriate ESD test standard should be selected for equipment testing ([1], [3], ). The manufacturing, handling, packaging, and transportation of individual electronic components, including integrated circuits, are not discussed, and this guide does not deal with mobile items such as automobiles, aircraft, or other masses of comparable size. ESD results in a sudden transfer of charge between bodies of differing electrostatic potentials. In this guide, the term ESD includes charge transfer whether or not an arc occurs or is perceived. ESD phenomena generate electromagnetic fields over a broad range of frequencies, from direct current (dc) to...