ABSTRACT
Electrostatic discharge can often be a source of immense annoyance to EMC engineers, and more important, it can also be extremely costly for an electronics manufacturer if countermeasures to mitigate discharge are not implemented. As a simple example, consider a person walking on a carpet during winter when the humidity is low who touches a port on the back of an electronic device. The charge buildup and its subsequent discharge into the port may potentially destroy sensitive electronic components. Hence, electrostatic discharge can be potentially damaging to electronic equipment. This chapter is intended to acquaint the reader with the physics of electrostatic discharge at an informal level.
