Circuit-Aided Dummy Design for Human Body-Worn ESD Application

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is considered for different postures of the body and for different positions of a device under test (DUT). These scenarios lead to large variations in peak discharge currents, and a traditional commercial ESD generator cannot test these satisfactorily. Instead of using actual humans, a full-size dummy has been designed for different body-worn ESD test scenarios, its discharge currents and fields are verified by comparing the measurement results with those taken from volunteers. A wearable DUT on the wrist, elbow, and waist is taken into consideration to compare the characteristics of the dummy to those of the real human body. Furthermore, a circuit model is proposed to aid in understanding the dummy design and the different body-worn scenarios. Finally, the effect of an external connection with different waist positions is analyzed and discussed in a more complex application scenario.