Are there different types of ESD damage?
showNewIcon(“26 Nov 2002”); Yes. Electrostatic discharge damage can take the form of upset failures or catastrophic failures. • UPSET FAILURES result in gate leakage. • CATASTROPHIC FAILURES occur in two forms: Direct and Latent failures. UPSET FAILURES occur when an electrostatic discharge (ESD) has caused a current flow that is not significant to cause total failure. However, in use it may intermittently result in gate leakage causing loss of software or incorrect storage of information. Upset or latent failures may pass your company’s quality control testing program. DIRECT CATASTROPHIC FAILURES occur when a component is damaged to the the point where it is dead now and will never again function. This is the easiest type of ESD damage to find, since it usually can be detected during testing. LATENT FAILURES occur when ESD weakens or wounds the component to the point where it will still function properly during testing. However, over time the wounded component will cause poor system
