ESD safe caps in series still ESD safe?

[MrMetthew]

Hi all,

I was wondering, if I put two esd safe capacitors (e.g. AVX ESD55C472K4T2A-18) in series to double the voltage rating of the cap, will they preserve their esd safe properties?

[T3sl4co1l]

I don't see why not.

Tim

[MrMetthew]

I don't see why not.

Tim

Maybe because the esr gets doubled? I am not sure..

[jmelson]

Hi all,

I was wondering, if I put two esd safe capacitors (e.g. AVX ESD55C472K4T2A-18) in series to double the voltage rating of the cap, will they preserve their esd safe properties?

That's 4700 pF?  Geez, what's this ESD safe stuff?  I think it would be VERY hard to damage a 4700 pF cap unless your ESD conditions are so bad you are getting visible/audible sparks jumping around.  The really worst-case human body model has a 470 pF reservoir cap that is charged to the test voltage, this is worse than almost any real ESD event you can imagine in a station where exposed PC boards are handled.

Jon

[Niklas]

The internal structure is slightly different on these capacitors to provide a discharge path that bypasses the wanted capacitance. Apart from that they are just like normal capacitors and can be connected in series or in parallell.

https://incompliancemag.com/article/effectiveness-of-multilayer-ceramic-capacitors-for-electrostatic-discharge-protection/

[wraper]

The internal structure is slightly different on these capacitors to provide a discharge path that bypasses the wanted capacitance. Apart from that they are just like normal capacitors and can be connected in series or in parallell.

https://incompliancemag.com/article/effectiveness-of-multilayer-ceramic-capacitors-for-electrostatic-discharge-protection/

They don't provide any discharge path. The difference is in placement of conductive plates.