Relevance of contact reliability in HBM-ESD test equipment

Unreliable contacts in modem HBM-ESD (human body Model electrostatic discha rge) test equipment can reduce the detected HBM-ESD failure level of an int egrated circuit from above 3 kV to below 2 W. As shown both by experiments and simulation, this is the result of charging of internal parasitic capaci tance of the ESD tester and a subsequent spark-induced very fast discharge leading to CDM (charged device model)-like current transients. Consequently , due to the trend to increasing pin-count devices, the importance of the r eliability and self-test capability of ESD test equipment rises. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.