ESD Precautions?

[r080]

I am curious what precautions, if any, you builders take regarding ESD. I recently fried an opamp somewhere between the breadboard and veroboard during a dry spell, so I have been thinking about it.

I found a thread on it from 10 years ago. At that time, not many people were doing anything about it. I wondered if that has changed given more widespread use of low voltage digital devices in DIY pedals.

[StephenGiles]

ESD?

[vigilante397]

I typically take zero precautions against ESD (electro-static discharge for the uninitiated) aside from using ESD safe tweezers when placing SMD components on a board. I used to wear a grounding strap every time I touched a semiconductor, but I've gotten lazy and have yet to fry a component from ESD.

[amptramp]

I use tubes.  They are radiation-resistant as well.

[Rob Strand]

At home, anytime I touch ESD sensitive devices or large expensive devices I discharge myself to ground.   I do that at the point I'm working,  I don't walk over to a discharge point and walk back!

At work I use wrist-bands and anti-static mats.   The bands and mats get tested and cleaned at regular intervals using a standard procedure.   The results are logged and when the resistance increases we re-clean and re-test.   In some cases the resistance goes beyond the allowed value and we replace the mat.   We have also had wrist bands fail.

The risk of ESD damage is a strong function of the relative humidity.   Below 30%RH the risk of ESD causing damage sky-rockets.     The other risk factor is the floor material.  Some carpet + shoe combinations make things a lot worse.  Some labs use conductive floor materials.

[bluebunny]

If I'm handling MOSFETs or CMOS chips, I'll make a token attempt to discharge myself at a radiator that's within reach.  Otherwise, I don't do anything.  Not killed anything yet.  I'm surprised you zorched an opamp (unless it was a CMOS one, of course).

[willienillie]

But what about EMP protection?  Because next grand solar maximum, watch out!  Somebody think of the children!

[vigilante397]

But what about EMP protection?  Because next grand solar maximum, watch out!  Somebody think of the children!

Back to Ron's comment, tubes have you covered

[teemuk]

Tubes protect from EMP only in the realm of myths. 

Back to topic, a quite usual protection method features voltage limitation with clipping diodes preceded by current limiting resistor. Of course that won't protect when handling components during the building process, which is where those antistatic mats and grounding wristbands come to the picture.

[r080]

I'm surprised you zorched an opamp (unless it was a CMOS one, of course).

It was a BB OPA2132. I am not 100% sure it was ESD, but if I think back to when it most likely fried, I was probably wearing thick wool socks standing at a wood bench with around 15%RH with nothing nearby to discharge myself beforehand.

I am less worried now, as the weather has changed here. It is no longer cold enough at my workbench for wool socks, and humidity is around 60-80%RH.