Breadboard materials ESD safe?

[Michael Weston]

Are any breadboards made with static dissipative plastic? If you know of any, please post the brand name(s) and link(s) here.

Are any breadboard backings made with static dissipative plastic?  If you know of any, please post the brand name(s) and link(s) here.

The closest I came to answering these questions is in K and H's (manufacturer's) product description web page for the breadboard Dave shows in EEVblog #168 at 21:38:
"MATERIAL: External Body is made of ABS."   

Plastics International has a table at the at the bottom of their web page that describes which plastics have ESD-safe properties and to what extent.

So, according to Plastics International, unless the ABS plastic used in K and H's breadboards is filled with carbon powder, carbon fiber, or coated carbon fiber, it has no ESD related properties (other than being an insulator).

Also, is it safe from an ESD perspective for a breadboard to have an aluminum backing?

Please help.

[AndyC_772]

Ooh, that's a good question. I can't say I've ever seen one; I guess it would be black if they did exist.

You're probably looking at an extremely small market for such a product, though. Breadboards tend to be used for prototyping and in education, where no product has to last for long and there are a hundred other reasons why a component might blow up other than having been zapped by a static spark.

You may even find that there's almost no overlap between people who routinely use breadboards, and people who even know that ESD is a problem. Hence, nobody exists who is willing to pay extra for dissipative plastic - and therefore, there's no market for dissipative breadboards.

If your components ever actually touch the aluminium backing, there's always a risk that any static which has built up on them can be discharged too fast, and so yes, there's a potential risk there. I'd regard it as minimal, though; I don't like breadboards at the best of times, and I think your components are much more likely to be at risk from mechanical stress, voltage stress due to ringing and overshoots, and accidental shorts.

[HardBoot]

Why are you even worried about esd?

Could just have a regular good quality breadboard with lots of grounds stuck into it's unused planes... and work with it on an esd mat.

[hlavac]

If working with ESD sensitive components you are supposed to wear the grounded wristband and have an antistatic mat on the table anyway, there is no point in ESD protected breadboard.
Breadboards are bad enough as is (capacitance between contacts),
making them partially conductive or something would be even worse...

[Simon]

True, by the very nature of their construction they are probably pretty esd safe.

[Michael Weston]

Why are you even worried about esd?

I'm not worried; I never worry.

I have been thinking a lot about buying an ESD mat, and that lead me to wondering if breadboards have any ESD characteristics.

[westfw]

Don't rub them with cat fur.

Next you'll be asking about the epoxy (?) used to encapsulate chips.
There's more (and less) to ESD safety than making everything slightly conductive.

[kaindub]

Sometimes I think we get a little excited about the small stuff

ESD is really a problem in mass production. Consider that the effects of ESD damage if they occur in a mass produced item, would lead to unexpected costs for the manufacturer, firstly to remediate any faulty items off the production line, but more seriously the effects of failed products in production.
ESD damage is also going to occur More in production since the parts are hadled frequently and aggressively.

In the project lab, if a part fails from ESD, then its pretty easy and of no commercial cost to identify the failed part and change it out.

Rather than spending your dollars on 'special' devices, just observer some simple and proven ESD handling practices (youcan find these on the web)

In several decades of building electronics, I can't attribute one component failure to ESD and I can tell you I don't take ANY ESD precautions. That's not to say that components in my projects have failed due to ESD, but I've blown up more components from overvoltage and overcurrent than any other cause

Robert

[ftransform]

[AndyC_772]

One little-known fact about ESD damage is that it's rarely fatal straight away. Zap a chip with static and chances are it'll carry on working perfectly well for a while, but then it'll fail at some later date when the product is in service.

In one of my previous jobs, I was the hardware guy in a room full of software engineers. Periodically people would come to me with boards and ask me to fix them, saying they'd "just stopped working". The faults were random.

We were developing embedded PC cards, so they were handled frequently, and the room was an ordinary office with regular floor and furnishings. I suspected ESD damage.

So, I argued and fought, and eventually got the go-ahead to equip everyone with an anti-static mat. I bought a big roll of the stuff and cut pieces to fit all the engineers' desks, and made myself thoroughly unpopular by going round fitting the mats and handing out wrist straps, with instructions to use them every time they handled a card.

It was a real uphill struggle to get it into the heads of the engineers that the way they handled boards on one day could cause them to fail some time later. They didn't get it at all.

But: I *never* received another card that "just stopped working" after 'ESD-day'.

Could just have a regular good quality breadboard with lots of grounds stuck into it's unused planes... and work with it on an esd mat.

Sorry, couldn't resist this one - it's the ESD equivalent of walking into a clean room wearing muddy wellington boots.

[Michael Weston]

One little-known fact about ESD damage is that it's rarely fatal straight away. Zap a chip with static and chances are it'll carry on working perfectly well for a while, but then it'll fail at some later date when the product is in service.

And therein is one situation I am concerned about: latent failures.  It is nice to see someone understands.

[ftransform]

Is this ESD paranoia getting out of hand? Is it the electronics equivalent of audiofoolery? am I just an idiot?
Now we need ESD safe breadboards...

[AndyC_772]

Michael, I think it's unlikely that anything built on a breadboard will ever last long enough for latent ESD damage to become a problem. It's not a technology that's ever used beyond a one-off lab prototype, so even though you're absolutely correct that they are a potential ESD hazard, I don't think there's really a problem in practice.

[T4P]

Breadboards are simple, you do the prototype there and done.
Once you're done remove.
Well actually what sort of device are you prototyping that you so easily zap it on a breadboard? I don't know

One little-known fact about ESD damage is that it's rarely fatal straight away. Zap a chip with static and chances are it'll carry on working perfectly well for a while, but then it'll fail at some later date when the product is in service.

And therein is one situation I am concerned about: latent failures.  It is nice to see someone understands.

Well true yes but you are having a bit of paranoia, that only matters for the final design that is supposed to work in other people's hands
Prototyping? No. not at all, think about it, are you going to sell your prototype on breadboard? Really?
If i'm honest the breadboards i come across here have metal strips on the bottom AND i assume a proper 10^7-10^9 esd mat would do it's job
Why would you ever want a breadboard to be slightly conductive? That CAN worsen things