Electrostatic discharge event locators
US5923160A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 19, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jul 13, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 19, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01R29/0892
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
Determining the location of an ESD event is achieved through the use of an envelope detector or absolute value comparator which identifies the arrival of an electromagnetic waveform generated by an ESD event at each of a plurality of antennas. Arrival times are compared to determine the location of the ESD event. A plurality of N antennas are employed, and each antenna is coupled to a corresponding envelope detector, threshold discriminator, switch, and register. The output of a clock is coupled to the switches, and a microprocessor is coupled to the registers. When an antenna receives a waveform corresponding to ESD, the envelope detector extracts an envelope signal related to the envelope of the waveform and couples the envelope signal to the threshold discriminator. When the envelope signal has a value above a specified threshold, the threshold discriminator sends a signal to latch the current count of the clock into the corresponding register. When each register is loaded with an arrival time, the microprocessor applies a triangulation procedure to the arrival times to calculate the location of the ESD event.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.