Static You Can't Feel Can Kill a Chip

Static you can't even feel at your fingertip can still damage a sensitive chip. That's why chips ship in static shielding bags. Just walking or your clothes rubbing together can build thousands of volts on your body, and most people don't feel a zap until it's around 3,000V. Transistors inside modern chips have insulating layers just a few nanometers thick, and a sudden high voltage can break them down, so the chip fails or is weakened. Most chip pins have ESD protection circuits, but they can only handle so much. A chip may not fail right away; it can be weakened and fail later. Before you touch a chip, touch grounded metal, or work wearing a grounded wrist strap. #Electronics #ESD #StaticElectricity #Shorts