Electrostatic discharge event and transient signal detection and measurement device and method

• US 20070052425A1
• Filed: 09/06/2005
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Desco Industries Incorporated
• Original Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Inventors: Kraz, Vladimir
• Granted Patent: US 7,525,316 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/457
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/001 Measuring interference from external sources to, or emission from, the device under test, e.g. EMC, EMI, EMP or ESD testing measuring electromagnetic fields G01R29/08; circuits for generating HV pulses in dielectric strength testing G01R31/14

Abstract

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) event and transient signal detection and measurement device and method are described. The device and method are able to distinguish between an ESD event and other non-ESD events.

Claims

1. A device for the detection of electromagnetic emission events, comprising:

a receiver that receives an electromagnetic emission;

a low-bandwidth active electronic circuit with a bandwidth lower than a bandwidth of the received electromagnetic emission, the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit generating a slowly decaying output signal in response to the received electromagnetic emission having a predetermined rise time so that an electromagnetic emission event with a predetermined rise time is identified.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit further comprises an operational amplifier.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit generates a different signal in response to a high frequency signal having a rise time that is longer than the predetermined rise time.

4. The device of claim 2, wherein the operational amplifier generates a different signal in response to a high frequency signal having a rise time that is longer than the predetermined rise time.

5. The device of claim 2, wherein the operational amplifier further comprises a first diode and a second diode placed between an inverting input of the operational amplifier and an output of the operational amplifier to increase the dynamic range of the gain of the operational amplifier.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the electromagnetic radiation further comprises an emission from electrostatic discharge.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the receiver further comprises an antenna.

8. The device of claim 1 further comprising a pattern recognizer that recognizes a pattern of a particular electromagnetic emission.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the pattern recognizer further comprises a window comparator.

10. The device of claim 2 further comprising:

a high-pass filter coupled to an output of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit; and

a peak detector coupled to an output of the high-pass filter, the peak detector having a time constant substantially similar to an output signal of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit to an electromagnetic emission with the predetermined rise time.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the window comparator determines if an envelope of an output signal of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit is comparable to a predetermined signal having a predetermined envelope.

12. The device of claim 8, wherein the pattern recognizer further comprises a processor that is part of the device, the processor executing a program to perform the pattern recognition and determines if an envelope of an output signal of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit is comparable to a predetermined signal having a predetermined envelope.

13. The device of claim 2, wherein the operational amplifier has a gain that is selectable by a switch.

14. The device of claim 2, wherein the operational amplifier has a gain that is continuously variable by a varying circuit.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the varying circuit further comprises a potentiometer.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the potentiometer is digitally-controlled.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein an output signal of the low bandwidth active electronic circuit has a polarity and a polarity of the electromagnetic emission is determined based on the polarity of the output signal.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein an output signal of the low bandwidth active electronic circuit is measured to determine a strength of the electromagnetic emission.

19. The device of claim 10, wherein an output signal of the peak detector is measured to determine a strength of the electromagnetic emission.

20. The device of claim 1 further comprising a peak and hold detector circuit coupled to an output of the low bandwidth active electronic circuit wherein an output of the peak and hold detector circuit provides a measurement of a strength of the electromagnetic emission for a slower measurement device.

21. The device of claim 1 further comprises a circuit that indicates a polarity of electromagnetic emission.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the circuit that indicates the polarity of the electromagnetic emission further comprises an operational amplifier that compares an output of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit to a reference voltage to determine the polarity of the electromagnetic emission.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the operational amplifier further comprises a non-inverting input connected to an output of the low-bandwidth active electronic circuit, an inverting input connected to the reference voltage and an output that generates a high signal when a positive polarity electromagnetic emission occurs.

58. The device of claim 5Q further comprising an envelope detector that receives the input discharge and generates a filtered signal that is fed into the pulse generator circuit.

24. A device for identifying an ESD Event, comprising:

a receiver that receives an input signal;

an identifier unit that compares the received input signal to a predetermined signal in order to determine if the input signal is an ESD event signal; and

an output circuit for outputting an identification signal if the input signal is identified as an ESD event signal.

25. The device of claim 24 wherein the received input signal has a signal envelope and wherein the identifier unit further comprises an envelope detector that compares the signal envelope of the received input signal to a signal envelope of an ESD event signal.

26. The device of claim 25, wherein the envelope detector further comprises a window comparator circuit.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein the received input signal has a spectrum having predetermined amount of energy at one or more frequencies and wherein the identifier unit further comprises a spectrum detector that compares the spectrum of the received input signal to a spectrum of an ESD event signal.

28. The device of claim 24, wherein the receiver further comprises an antennae.

29. A device for identifying an ESD Event, comprising:

a receiver that receives an input signal, the input signal having an envelope;

an identifier unit that compares the received input signal envelope to a predetermined signal envelope in order to determine if the input signal is an ESD event signal; and

an output circuit for outputting an identification signal if the input signal is identified as an ESD event signal.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the identifier unit further comprises a processor that executes a pattern recognition software module that compares the input signal envelope pattern to a predetermined signal envelope.

31. The device of claim 29, wherein the receiver further comprises an antenna.

32. A device for measuring an emission signal from a distance, comprising:

a receiver that receives an input signal;

a signal distance measuring unit that determines a distance to the input signal; and

a signal strength determining unit that determines a strength of the input signal based on the input signal and the distance to the input signal.

33. The device of claim 32, wherein the input signal further-comprises one of an electromagnetic field emission, a magnetic field emission, an electric field emission, a sound emission and an ionizing radiation emission.

34. The device of claim 32, wherein the receiver further comprises a sensor.

35. The device of claim 34, wherein the input signal further comprises an electromagnetic field.

36. The device of claim 32, wherein the signal distance measuring unit further comprises a manual unit for manually entering the distance into the device.

37. The device of claim 32, wherein the signal distance measuring unit further comprises an automatic signal distance measurement unit that automatically measures the distance from the device to the input signal.

38. The device of claim 37, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises a light-based distance measurement unit.

39. The device of claim 37, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises an ultrasonic distance measurement unit.

40. The device of claim 37, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises a mechanical distance measurement unit.

41. An electrostatic discharge event emission detection device, comprising:

a receiver that receives an input signal;

a signal distance measuring unit that determines a distance to the input signal;

a signal strength determining unit that determines a strength of the input signal; and

a processor that determines a voltage that caused the input signal, the voltage being determined based on the distance to the input signal, the strength of the input signal and a model of discharge of the input signal.

42. The device of claim 41, wherein the processor also determines the voltage that caused the input signal based on characterization data of the device.

43. The device of claim 41, wherein the receiver further comprises a sensor.

44. The device of claim 41, wherein the input signal further comprises one of an electromagnetic field emission, a magnetic field emission, an electric field emission, a sound emission and an ionizing radiation emission.

45. The device of claim 41, wherein the signal distance measuring unit further comprises a manual unit for manually entering the distance into the device.

46. The device of claim 41, wherein the signal distance measuring unit further comprises an automatic signal distance measurement unit that automatically measures the distance from the device to the input signal.

47. The device of claim 46, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises a light-based distance measurement unit.

48. The device of claim 46, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises an ultrasonic distance measurement unit.

49. The device of claim 46, wherein the automatic signal distance measurement unit further comprises a mechanical distance measurement unit.

50. A device for determining a type of discharge, comprising:

a receiver that receives an input discharge;

a pulse generator circuit that generates a series of pulses based on the input discharge and a clock signal; and

a comparator circuit that compares the series of pulses generated for a particular input discharge to a predetermined number of pulses associated with a particular discharge type to determine the type of discharge.

51. The device of claim 50, wherein the discharge type further comprises one of a human body model, a machine model, a charge device model and other defined models.

52. The device of claim 50, wherein the pulse generator circuit further comprises one of a counter and a shift register.

53. The device of claim 50 further comprising an envelope detector that receives the input discharge and generates a filtered signal that is fed into the pulse generator circuit.

54. The device of claim 50, wherein the comparator circuit further comprises a processor.

55. The device of claim 54, wherein the comparator further comprises an analog signal converter that feds a digital signal into the processor.

56. The device of claim 55, wherein the analog signal converter circuit further comprises an analog to digital converter circuit.

57. The device of claim 55, wherein the analog signal converter circuit further comprises a peak and hold circuit.