Abstract
When an electrostatic discharge (ESD) gun discharges to a USB cable, the routing and quality of the cable impacts the waveform seen at the printed circuit board (PCB) connected to the cable and the ability of an on-board transient voltage suppressor (TVS) to protect sensitive electronics. The impact of cable configurations during ESD gun contact discharge tests was investigated for multiple cable configurations. Injection to a cable pin whose shield is 'floating' at the injection site can cause a double-peak in the ESD waveform at the PCB and a lower maximum stress level than when the cable shield is connected to the return plane. Poor shielding of the USB connector can further induce a pre-pulse effect, where a smaller ESD pulse arrives at the PCB before the main pulse. This pre-pulse can result in poor firing of the TVS device and thus worsen ESD stress at a sensitive IC. Circuit models were developed to anticipate and explain both of these phenomena. These models were incorporated into a system-level transient simulation including models of a PCB with a TVS and a pair of on-chip diodes. This system-level model was able to predict the quasi-static and peak voltages and currents at the on-chip diode during 1-8 kV ESD contact-discharge tests with various USB cable configurations to within less than 30%. These models were used to develop test and design guidelines to account for the impact of the quality and configuration of a USB cable during an ESD discharge.
Recommended Citation
Y. Xu et al., "Modeling an ESD Gun Discharge to a USB Cable," 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility and Signal/Power Integrity, EMCSI 2022, pp. 309 - 314, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Jan 2022.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/EMCSI39492.2022.9889484
Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Electrostatic discharge (ESD); system-efficient ESD design (SEED); System-level ESD; transient voltage suppressor; USB cable
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-166540929-2
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2022
Comments
National Science Foundation, Grant IIP-1916535