Basic Physics

Abstract

This chapter will briefly highlight the simple electrostatic principles behind ESD damage and control. The usual diagrams filled with plus and minus signs are omitted because you can see them in treatises on electrostatics such as Ref. 2-1 through 2–4. Incidentally, you’ll find the history of static electricity in these books especially interesting, dating as it does from the discovery of charging of the plasticlike amber (“electron” in Greek) by materials such as cat fur at the opposite end of the triboelectric series (see Chapter 4).