Human Metal ESD: Design of a Full-Wave Model and an Improved Compact Generator

Abstract

A full-size, full-wave human body model has been designed. Compared with a real human-metal electrostatic discharge (ESD), similar fields and currents are obtained from the numerical model. A resistive surface sheet is used in microwave studio to control the currents on the air-filled body. Its performance is verified by comparing it to the currents and fields from the real human ESD. A subcircuit models the time-dependent resistance of the spark using the well-known Rompe–Weizel spark resistance model. Real human metal ESD does not reveal the double hump shape as shown in the IEC standard. To create a generator that reproduces the real human metal ESD current waveform, a compact ESD generator was designed, which is based on matching the impedance of real human metal mode ESD with the impedance of the compact ESD generator. Furthermore, a circuit-based simulator is presented. It is based on a PCB implementation of the equivalent circuit of the human metal ESD.