Comparison of ESD Damage Test for Common-Mode Chokes With ESD Gun and TLP-HMM

The method of electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage test for common-mode chokes has been standardized in IEC 62228–5 Annex E. However, there is a concern about the reproducibility of the ESD damage test using the ESD gun described therein. Against this background, the possibility of replacing the ESD gun with a transmission line pulse–human metal model (TLP-HMM) was investigated. The results of the ESD damage test using the ESD gun and TLP-HMM are found to be similar but not exactly the same, especially at low frequencies. Moreover, due to the different waveform generation principles and circuit configurations of the ESD gun and TLP-HMM, even if a load of the same structure is used to calibrate the ESD gun and TLP-HMM, when they are applied to other loads, it is still difficult to guarantee that the discharge currents are the same. The findings raise an issue on how to define a standard TLP-HMM so that it could provide the worst test result compared to the ESD gun.