[sdiy] OT: Where to get cheap ESD safe electronics parts drawers?

[Hugh Blemings]

Hiya,

An interesting discussion on ESD... :)

On 12/3/17 11:10, Tom Wiltshire wrote:
>
> On 11 Mar 2017, at 21:02, Andre Majorel <aym-htnys at teaser.fr> wrote:
>> I've stuck TTL ICs into little pieces of black foam kept in
>> ordinary plastic drawers but I'd be hesitant to do that for CMOS.
>> Now, I keep ICs in wooden drawers, in foam or tubes cut to size.
>> Wood might be an insulator but it doesn't seem to be as prone to
>> build-up of electrostatic charge as untreated plastic. (Talking
>> about plywood and solid wood here, not melamine-covered particle
>> board.)
>
> I started out playing with CMOS and a 9-volt battery when I was a kid
> and I'd never even heard of static precautions. I never killed
> anything by static, but I grant you that the UK has a pretty damp
> climate…
>
> I think the risk of chips dying from static is somewhat overplayed.
> It's a good way to sell you more stuff, and perhaps in a production
> environment where you're handling thousands each day the numbers
> start to stack up, but for an individual? Seems unlikely.
>
> I'm quite willing to hear why that's all nonsense though.

I'd be very reluctant to say "nonsense" among this erstwhile list but 
can offer this perspective;

Many years ago I put basically the scenario outlined above to a good 
mate of mine who was also an EE of many years experience.

Gav basically explained that the problem with ESD tends to be insidious. 
  Immediate failures are relatively rare, but at least have the 
advantage that the part is known bad then and there.

Much more commonly though, the ESD causes non-catastrophic failure - 
only blows a little hole in the circuit elements if you like.  Thus the 
device continues to operate, but it's long term reliability is impaired 
and/or its performance degraded.

The problem with "minor" damage then becomes one of statistically higher 
failure rates or weird behaviour in the field.

He had some impressive electron microscope photos in a textbook that 
illustrated this, so long ago I've no idea the title, but this 
application note from Maxim is in a similar vein.

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/4491

The takeaway I had from this conversation that I've sought to work by 
ever since is to always take ESD precautions - static strap, mat on work 
bench, ESD foam for device storage, ground myself before touching even 
completed PCBAs etc.

Hope this helps!

Happy Hacking,
Hugh