ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion Anti-Static Procedures

Sorry but this doesn't really fit into a Safety sort of thing directly.
But it could do if you blow a $1000 piece of gear to pieces, by not using ESD procedures and you don't own it!.
These days CMOS and MOSFET devices are used in all manner of power control devices to effect switching of large currents and one single hit with a Static Voltage (which can be up to 30kV or more), will render these devices useless.
Tell me, what sort of Anti-Static Procedures, do you use in your normal course of work?.

Wear a grounded wrist strap when handling MOS devices (with high value resistance in series to avoid becoming a statistic!).

Keep MOS devices in shorting foam when not in cthe circuit.

Ground a piece of equipment to discharge any static before tranferring devices to it.

Ionized air blower and anti-static treatment on my workbench, in addition to wriststraps and conductive foam/bags mentioned previously...

See materials at www.esda.org

When working on personal computers, I power them off but usually leave the power cord connected. That way the chasis is at ground potential. An even safer way would be a cheater cord that continues the ground but leaves out the line conductors.