Electrostatic discharge event detector
First Claim
1. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) event detector comprising:
- an antenna,a demodulator for generating an envelope waveform that is related to the envelope of signals received by the antenna,a discriminator for generating an indication signal when the envelope waveform has a magnitude between a first and a second threshold, anda counter for counting each indication signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Detection of the existence, magnitude, and frequency of occurrence of a plurality of ESD events is achieved by using an envelope detector to process signals generated by ESD events and received by an antenna. The ESD event detector includes an antenna for producing a signal waveform in response to electromagnetic fields incident thereupon, a demodulator coupled to the antenna for generating an envelope waveform that is related to the envelope of the signal waveform, a threshold window discriminator coupled to the demodulator for generating an indication signal if the envelope detected by the demodulator has a magnitude between a first and a second threshold, and a counter coupled to the threshold window discriminator for counting the number of indication signals received from the threshold window detector.
54 Citations
30 Claims
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1. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) event detector comprising:
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an antenna, a demodulator for generating an envelope waveform that is related to the envelope of signals received by the antenna, a discriminator for generating an indication signal when the envelope waveform has a magnitude between a first and a second threshold, and a counter for counting each indication signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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8. A method of detecting electrostatic discharge (ESD) events comprising the steps of:
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receiving a signal waveform on an antenna, generating an envelope waveform related to the envelope of the signal waveform, generating an indication signal only when the envelope waveform has an instantaneous amplitude between a first and a second threshold, and counting the indication signals. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17)
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30. An ESD event detector CHARACTERIZED BY:
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(a) an antenna tuned to a frequency at which an ESD event produces electromagnetic radiation; (b) an envelope filter for processing electromagnetic energy received by the antenna and having a time constant sufficiently lengthy so as to distinguish a first waveform representing a single ESD event from a second waveform representing a plurality of ESD events, (c) the envelope filter providing an envelope output, and the ESD event detector further characterized by a threshold discriminator which generates an indication signal when the envelope waveform has a magnitude between a first and a second threshold, the first and second thresholds defining an amplitude window corresponding to a range of amplitudes representative of ESD events to be detected.
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Specification