Why Is ESD Pre-Screen Testing Important?

Date Posted: 08/22/14
Author: Guy Newkirk
Guy Newkirk

Everyone has experienced it; you reach out to open the refrigerator door and ZAP! Upwards of 15,000 volts of static electricity jumps from your fingertip to the refrigerator in a fraction of the time it takes to blink your eye. If instead you had reached for a sensitive electronic device, there may have been a chance of damaging, or even destroying that device had it not been for  careful engineering during the design of that product to prevent such damage or destruction.

Engineers ensure that their product design can take such events by simulating them under controlled conditions. That simulation is called electrostatic discharge immunity testing, or ESD for short. Though not a legal requirement to sell a product here in the United States, it is a legal requirement to sell in places like Europe (EU). Regardless, it's a good idea to know how well your product can stand up to normal ESD events whether you only intend to sell here in the US or not.

Percept has been conducting ESD pre-screening for nearly two decades. Our clients often come to us with newly developed products, or with products that have failed when they've attempted to get them certified. Pre-screening costs are only a fraction of the amount that it costs to have a product formally tested for certification. And if your product doesn't pass our pre-screening, we work with you to help fix the problem until it does. Agency laboratories do not help you fix the problem. They’ll charge you the same again and again until you figure out how to fix your product. 

Once you pass ESD pre-screening at Percept you can be confident that you'll only have to pay once at the agency laboratory for your certification.