Energy Transfer in Threshold Electrostatic Discharge Events Characterized with Electrical Measurement and Near-Field Single-Shot Ptychography

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can severely damage sensitive electrical components and materials by suddenly releasing stored energy and delivering it to a series ‘victim’ load. To understand and predict this damage, we quantify where the energy is dissipated for various configurations by varying the initial stored charge, gap length, victim resistance, and electrode geometry, which affect the fraction of stored energy dissipated by the victim, η_v, in threshold ESD events. Using time-resolved current and voltage signals, we directly calculate η_v for various configurations. We find that the nonlinear resistance model by Rompe and Weizel (RW) agrees quite well with our data, with a single fit parameter, a_r. Applying this model to our measured η_v data, for sphere–sphere discharges, the RW constant (a_r) lies in the range 0.25 to 2.57 cm²/(s·V²) over a wide range of victim resistances and initial stored charges. We also use near-field single-shot ptychography to measure the phase and amplitude of the dynamic spark channel. Thus, enabling the calculation of the energy that forms the shockwave expanding from the spark. These results clarify how threshold ESD parameters govern energy dissipation and victim damage, improving predictive capabilities for mitigating ESD.