Recently my co. got on the ESD bandwagon, they had some technicians come in and install a ground point on our test bench, and they gave us two sets of ESD mats and grounding straps. I think they are 3M brand. The mats have a round metal snap to attach to the workbench ground. I checked the resistance of one of these new mats with a Fluke DM 77. It was a long time ago, and I don't remember what the reading was exactly from the attaching snap contact to the surface of the mat, but I remember it was many megohms, if not infinite. I thought at first that this cannot function to protect against static charges. But possibly it is supposed to be up in the megohm range? I understand that to be a dead short to ground would be just as bad. There is supposed to be SOME resistance....but how much?
- posted
17 years ago