Chapter 3
3-3
Gauging and Making Connections
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
CAUTION
Static electricity builds up on the body and can easily damage sensitive
internal circuit elements when discharged by contact with the center
conductor of the RF connector, or the center contacts of the 25 pin D-sub
connector on any of the ECal modules.
The human body almost always retains some static charge. You are
usually not aware of this charge because the human threshold for the
perception of static discharge shock is approximately 3,000 volts.
Electrostatic discharge as low as 60 volts can destroy sensitive
microcircuits. When you clean or inspect connectors attached to any
static-sensitive circuits (on the calibration module or any instrument),
it is essential to protect against ESD.
• Always have a grounded antistatic mat in front of your test
equipment and wear a grounded wrist strap attached to it. See
• Ground yourself before you clean, inspect, or make a connection to a
static-sensitive device or test port. You can, for example, grasp the
grounded outer shell of the test port briefly to discharge static from
your body.
• Discharge static electricity from a device before connecting it by
touching the device briefly (through a resistor of at least 1 M
Ω
) to
either the outer shell of the test port connector or to another exposed
ground source (such as a grounding receptacle). Discharging static
electricity protects test equipment circuitry.
Refer to
Chapter 4, “Replaceable Parts”
for information about ordering
supplies for ESD protection.