Letter to the editor: Group responds to ESD confusion

The Industry Council on ESD Target Specifications would like to respond to the recent article entitled, ''ESD plan: state of shock'' by Mark LaPedus, that appeared in the May 7th publication of EE Times.

The article reported on the efforts by the Council in its recommended proposal for a general reduction of ESD levels to safely meet IC chip manufacturability. These efforts have become necessary when the chip suppliers noted that the present ESD specifications are drastically impeding the on-time delivery of products as well as making it increasingly difficult to design high speed and high performance integrated circuits.

While the Council is especially grateful to the EE Times for generously addressing this very important topic, we would respectfully like to point out some critical statements and omissions which could otherwise lead to wrong perceptions.

First, the article gave the impression that the Council members are not unanimous in support of their own findings. The Council, consisting of leading experts from 16 major semiconductor suppliers, as well as IC production control experts, test equipment leaders, and IP suppliers for ESD protection, would like to state that all members are in complete agreement for the need and urgency in reducing the required ESD levels.

Second, and the most critical aspect, is that basic factory control of ESD, rather than on-chip design techniques, is the most effective manner in which IC reliability and process yields can be maintained and ensured. Factory Control is the primary reason for lack of field returns for products operating well below the currently recommended ESD levels. The full supporting data and arguments for this position will be contained in the Industry Council's White Paper to be published by August 2007.

Next, the article causes further confusion by not differentiating between Component Level ESD targets (which can be safely lowered) and System Level ESD targets (which need to be maintained at the current levels) for overall IC reliability.

The findings and conclusions are supported by the quality management of each Council member company, and the recommendations are beginning to get favorable acceptance from the customers who are equally eager to receive high performance products that are guaranteed to be safe in the field.

Yours truly,

On Behalf of the Industry Council on ESD
Charvaka Duvvury, Texas Instruments
Harald Gossner, Infineon Technologies
Jim Miller, Freescale
Koen Verhaege, Sarnoff Europe

EE Times welcomes any other comments — or letters to the editor — concerning ESD. Please send letters to: mlapedus@cmp.com and jyoshida@cmp.com