What is an electrostatic discharge (ESD) and how does it develop?
Which dangers arise from an ESD?

ESD is the abbreviation for "Electrostatic Discharge" and describes the balancing of the electrostatic forces between two objects. One example for this phenomenon is the electric shock you get when you touch a vehicle while getting out of it, another example is lightning.

When 2 objects which carry either positive or negative electric charge are rubbed against each other or are separated from one another, charges emerge.

Whenever 2 potentials of different type get close to one another, their charges can flow off abruptly from one object to the other.

Similarly, the human body can get charged while a person is walking and can retain this charge until a discharge takes place when the person touches an object.

Discharges of this kind are normally harmless to human beings. With electronic assemblies, however, the situation is completely different.  Here ESD discharges can cause component failures, repair costs...

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