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How can I know my ESD mats are OK?

rodion15

Jul 12, 2015
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Jul 12, 2015
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I have 4 ESD mats at the workshop I work. The ESD mats are interconnected and one of them is connected to ground through a earth bounding point (the resistive socket that connects the mat to ground). Yesterday I did this test: I used a voltmeter set to AC voltage, negative probe touching the ground in a socket, the other one between my fingers. I measured 2 volts. Then I put on the ESD wrist-band and I was surprised to find that not only did the voltage go down, it rose to 2.2volts!. It looks like this mat isn't working, am I right? How else can I check the ESD mats are OK?
 

Harald Kapp

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Nov 17, 2011
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An ESD mat is not hard grounded but has a resistor (~1MΩ) in the grounding wire to prevent too rapid discharge of components. Use the Ohm range of your multimeter to measure this resistance. less than 100kΩ and more than 2MΩ are signs of a bad grounding connection.
 
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