The test of electromagnetic field radiated by electrostatic discharge (ESD) from the real charged human body in the office

Abstract

A customised ultra-wide band E-field probe and H-field probe with wide band oscilloscope were used to test the electromagnetic field radiated from electrostatic discharge (ESD). Many tests were carried out by real charged human body discharge to the ground. The results show that the electric field in 10 cm by a human holding a metal pen with a potential of 2 kV discharge to ground is about 410 V/m and the magnetic field is about 28 A/m in the distance of 3 cm from the discharge. The band of the field is extremely wide, ranging from several MHz to above 1 GHz. The experiments also show that the amplitude of electric field radiated by ESD when a human holding a metal screwdriver discharging to the ground metal is many times larger than that of the human finger discharging directly to the ground. Electrostatic discharge is one of the most common harmful electromagnetic sources to electronic equipment in the office environment.