ESD Compliance

The ANSI/ESD S20.20 standard requires that personnel be grounded when handling ESD-sensitive items. This is typically done through three methods: wrist straps, shoe grounders, and ESD mats. Wrist straps and shoe grounders bond the person directly to ground. ESD mats bond the work surface so that static can be directed to a ground point on the mat.

Section 5.3.2 of the standard states that ESD grounding systems must be verified. For basic compliance, daily testing with a wrist strap and heel ground tester is acceptable for personnel. However, for high-reliability applications—like aerospace, medical devices, or zero-defect manufacturing—the standard recommends ESD continuous monitors be used to verify the wrist straps and mats are grounded.