ESD, electrostatic discharge, is the rapid transfer of charge built up by friction or induction, as when a person walking on carpet charges to several kilovolts and touches equipment. Many semiconductors can be damaged by discharges well below the roughly 3 kV a person can feel. Immunity tests apply contact discharges from an ESD gun at levels such as 4 or 8 kV, and electronics handling relies on wrist straps, dissipative mats and shielding bags.
Strap on before you touch that board, the last batch of returns came back with ESD damage on the input pins.
Also heard as
- electrostatic discharge
- static zap
Related terms
EMC
Electromagnetic compatibility: a product neither upsets nearby equipment with its noise nor gets upset by theirs.
EMI
Electromagnetic interference: unwanted electrical noise that disturbs the operation of a circuit or system.
Magic smoke
Joking name for the smoke a burnt-out component releases, as if the smoke were what made it work.