Observation of ESD Propagation Path Using Noise Visualization System

This paper proposes the new system of the noise visualization to detect the propagation path on the board. If high-voltage noise enters an electronic equipment due to electro-static discharge (ESD), it may cause the malfunction of the semiconductor component. The ESD noise has the characteristic that the rise time is short, and the propagation path of the ESD noise leading to the malfunction is unclear. So there is a problem that it tends to fall into trial and error countermeasures. There is a method of measuring the propagation path of the ESD noise using a single probe while applying ESD to the measurement object many times. However, there is a possibility that parts are broken during the evaluation test, and the propagation path cannot be estimated accurately. Therefore, we developed the new system to visualize the ESD noise on the whole printed circuit board (PCB) by applying ESD once. From this evaluation result, it was confirmed that the prototyped noise visualization system was effective for measuring the ESD noise.