ESD Association Advisory ESD ADV1.0-2017-DEFINITIONS-C1

coaxial transmission line

A coaxial cable with controlled impedance used for transferring a signal with minimum loss from one point of the system to another.

cold healing

The spontaneous recovery, at room temperature, of an item from a parametric change caused by electrostatic discharge.

cold workstation

A work area that has items, assemblies, black boxes, or systems which no power is applied.

common connection point

A device or location (less than 1 ohm within itself) where the conductors of two or more ESD technical elements are connected in order to bring the ungrounded ESD technical elements to the same electrical potential through equipotential bonding.

common point ground

A grounded device or location where the conductors of one or more technical elements are bonded.

compliance (periodic) verification

Testing done to indicate that the performance has not changed from initial baseline values to exceed selected limits.

compliance verification (periodic testing) equipment

An instrument or collection of instruments that provide an indication or measurement. It may or may not be repeatable or accurate. This equipment is typically used for indications of pass or fail.

component

An item such as a resistor, diode, transistor, integrated circuit or hybrid circuit. A component may also be referred to as a device.

component failure

A condition in which a tested component does not meet one or more specified static or dynamic data sheet parameters.

component under test (CUT)

A passive or active element, device, integrated circuit, module or subsystem being tested. The CUT is intended to become part of a completed system but is not the entire system.

compressed gas ionizer

Ionization devices that can be used to neutralize charged surfaces and / or remove surface particles with pressurized gas. This type of ionizer may be used to ionize the gas within production equipment.

conductive flooring material

A floor material that has a resistance to ground of less than 1.0 x 106 ohms.

conductive material, resistance

A material that has a surface resistance of less than 1 x 104 ohms or a volume resistance of less than 1 x 104 ohms.

conductive material, resistivity

A material that has a surface resistivity less than 1 x 105 ohms/square or a volume resistivity less than 1 x 104 ohm-cm.

conductivity

a.The ratio of the current per unit area (current density) to the electric field in a material. Conductivity is expressed in units of siemens/meter.

b.In non-technical usage, the ability to conduct current.

constant area and force electrode (CAFÉ)

An electrode designed to be held by a person’s finger, gloved or ungloved, to reproducibly measure resistance from the finger to a counter electrode such as a ground strap worn on the wrist of the same hand. This electrode is suitable for measuring the resistance of a finger wearing a finger cot.

contact-mode discharge

An ESD event initiated within a relay. The relay is connected to the component pin via a probe, and the component is not in a socket.

contact-mode, non-socketed discharge

See constant-mode discharge.

contact voltage measurement

A measurement technique using high input impedance circuitry used to monitor the voltage induced on a conductive plate where there is a direct connection from the circuitry to the conductive plate.

corona

The production of positive and negative ions by a very localized high electric field. The field is normally established by applying a high voltage to a conductor in the shape of a sharp point or wire.

correlation sample

A representative device used for correlating measured voltages with known applied voltages.

coupled non-supply pin pair

Two pins that have an intended direct current path (such as a pass gate or resistors), such as differential amplifier inputs, or low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) pins. They include analog and digital differential pairs and other special function pairs (e.g., D+/D-, XTALin/XTALout, RFin, RFout, TxP/TxN, RxP/RxN, CCP_DP/CCN_DN, etc.).

critical path components

Any portion of the AHE within a certain distance of the device path. That distance should be agreed upon between the manufacturer and end user.

cuff

The portion of a garment’s sleeve towards the end near the hand. This may be a conductive cuff or a device that takes the place of a wrist strap or a wristband type grounding mechanism that makes electrical contact with the body.

current limiting resistance

A resistance value incorporated in series with the wrist strap or foot grounder’s electrical path to ground. This resistance limits electrical current that could pass through the grounding mechanism in the event of inadvertent user contact with electrical potential.

current sense resistor

A resistor, RCS, of less than five ohms which produces a measurable voltage proportional to current through it with an intrinsic rise-time response three times faster than the fastest rise-time to be measured. Δv=Δi x RCS.

current sensor

A device used to measure the current in a circuit or system. This device could be non-invasive (by sensing the change in magnetic flux lines) or be very low impedance inserted in series (such as the ESD target).

current source method

A TLP methodology (sometimes referred to as constant current method) that utilizes a 500 ohm resistor in series with the DUT and measures the voltage and current at the DUT.

current/voltage ringing duration

The current/voltage ringing duration is defined as the length of time between the beginning of the current/voltage pulse and the time that the pulse settles and remains within 95% and 105% of the pulse plateau.