Plan
A written control programme plan with named responsibilities – including a named ESD coordinator, which the standard requires. It defines what applies where, which limits are used and how often you verify.
ESD protection
ESD protection to DIN EN IEC 61340-5-1
What is behind it, what the standard requires – and where to start.
The starting point
What ESD is – and what it costs
Two surfaces touch and separate; charge moves across and one of them keeps a potential. Walking across a carpet in dry air can put 15,000 to 35,000 volts on a person. Nothing about that is noticeable below roughly 3000 V – and modern components take damage well below 100 V. The gap between what a person can feel and what a component survives is the whole reason ESD protection exists.
What makes it expensive is not the immediate failure. ESD damage comes in two kinds: the total failure, which final test catches and which costs a component; and the latent defect, which leaves the plant inside a working assembly and fails at the customer weeks or months later. The second kind is the majority, and it is the one that costs a service call, a replacement, an analysis, and a conversation with the customer about quality.
That is why ESD protection is not a set of products. It is a programme: rules, technology, trained people, verification and records – with someone accountable for it.
The three thresholds
What the standard actually protects against
DIN EN IEC 61340-5-1 defines its application range with three values. A programme built to them covers the components that sit at or above those thresholds:
| Damage mechanism | Threshold | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| HBM – human body model | 100 V | A charged person touches the component. The classic case at a workstation. |
| CDM – charged device model | 200 V | The component itself is charged and discharges when it touches something grounded. The typical case in machine handling – and today the more common damage mechanism. |
| Isolated conductors | 35 V | A conductive part without a path to ground – a metal jig, a tool, a fixture – carrying a potential difference against the assembly. |
If you handle components that are more sensitive than these values, the standard expects the programme to be adapted downwards – and that adaptation to be documented. That is the tailoring case, and it is not exotic: some modern ICs are damaged below 50 V.
The principle
The EPA – one potential, no surprises
An EPA, an ESD protected area, rests on one simple idea: inside it, everything that can carry charge is connected to the same potential. Work surfaces, flooring, shelving, trolleys, chairs, tools and the people themselves are all tied to ground through a defined resistance – high enough to be safe, low enough to drain charge before it matters.
What cannot be grounded has to be kept away. Insulators – a plastic cup, a document sleeve, a private jacket – hold their charge and cannot be discharged by grounding them; the standard keeps non-essential ones at a distance from sensitive parts. Isolated conductors, the metal parts without a path to ground, are the more treacherous case, because they look harmless and carry a potential all the same.
And the EPA has a boundary. It is marked, access is limited to trained people, and outside it the component travels in packaging that protects it. Most of what goes wrong in practice happens exactly at that boundary: at goods-in, at shipping, at the moment a bag is opened in the wrong place.
Structure
The five pillars of a control programme
Whatever the size of the plant, a programme that survives an audit rests on the same five things:
Technology
Grounding, flooring, work surfaces, personnel grounding, packaging, ionisation where it is needed. The visible part – and the part usually bought first, sometimes before anyone has decided what it has to achieve.
Eğitimler
Initial training before the first handling, recurrent refreshers, and a defined method that verifies understanding. Records of who was trained and when, kept where the plan says they are kept.
Verification
A test plan with intervals, measurements with calibrated equipment, and an assessment against the limits. Without this, the technology is an assumption rather than a fact.
Evidence
Everything above, documented and producible. In an audit, an undocumented measure and a missing measure look identical.
Where to go from here
The parts, in the order they usually matter
Depending on where you stand, one of these is your next step:
ESD audit
The honest picture: an EPA walk-through with spot-check measurements and a prioritised deviation list. The right first step when you do not know where you stand.
ESD measurements
Calibrated measurement of resistances, body voltage and ionisation, with a report per measuring point – the recurring verification your plan calls for.
ESD koordinatörü
The role the standard requires. Appoint one internally, or hand it to us.
Eğitimler
Classroom courses for coordinators, responsible persons and operators – including the refresher for coordinators.
ESD e-learning
The online course for operators and office staff, in 20 languages, with a final test and a certificate.
İklim kabini
Product qualification at 12 ± 3 % relative humidity – before a material becomes part of your EPA.
ESD-Manager software
The programme in a system: test plans with due dates, measurements, calibration status, audits and qualifications.
The 2025 edition
What changed against 2017, the limits, and the transition period running until June 2027.
Frequently asked questions
What actually is ESD?
ESD stands for electrostatic discharge. Two surfaces touch and separate, charge moves across, and one of them ends up carrying a potential. When that potential finds a path – through a component – the discharge happens in nanoseconds. A person notices nothing below roughly 3000 V; modern components are damaged well below 100 V. That gap is the entire problem.
Why is ESD damage so expensive when it is invisible?
Because most of it does not fail immediately. A latent defect leaves the plant inside a working assembly and fails weeks or months later at the customer. What then costs money is not the component – it is the field service call, the replacement, the analysis and the customer’s confidence. A total failure caught in final test is the cheap version.
Is an ESD protected area only for production?
No. The standard covers everyone who handles ESD sensitive devices or otherwise comes into contact with them – which regularly includes goods-in, shipping, maintenance, cleaning and, at inventory time, even the finance department. EPA access is limited to trained people; untrained people only enter accompanied, and the person accompanying them is responsible.
Do we need an ESD control programme even without certification?
If your customers audit you – and in automotive, medical and industrial electronics they will – then a documented programme is what you are audited against. Without a plan, named responsibilities and records, the answer to every auditor question is a version of "we do that, we just cannot show it". Certification is optional; the evidence is not.
Where do we start if nothing exists yet?
With an honest picture of where you stand. An audit with spot-check measurements shows which parts of your production already meet the requirements and which do not, and produces a prioritised list rather than a wish list. From there the order is usually: name a coordinator, write the programme plan, train the people, then close the technical gaps.
What changed with the 2025 edition of the standard?
The application range now names three values explicitly, isolated conductors and insulators are defined more sharply, groundable garment systems are referenced for personnel grounding, and packaging requirements are gathered into their own table. The transition period runs until 25 June 2027 – long enough not to panic, short enough that a programme still on the 2017 edition should be looked at this year.
How often does all this have to be verified?
The standard does not name a fixed interval. It requires that your programme defines one – and that you then keep it. In practice, personnel grounding equipment is checked daily or per shift, workstations and flooring at longer intervals, and the whole programme once a year in an internal audit. What matters more than the frequency is that the interval is written down and the records exist.
Not sure where you stand?
A short conversation is usually enough to tell whether you need an audit, a coordinator or simply the missing records. Tell us what your production looks like.