In 1999, the ESD Association has approved and published a standard covering the development of an ESD control program. Approved as an ANSI standard, ANSI/ESD S20.20-1999: Development of an Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. The standard covers the requirements necessary to design, establish, implement, and maintain an ESD control program to protect electrical or electronic parts, assemblies and equipment susceptible to ESD damage from Human Body Model (HBM) discharges greater than or equal to 100 volts.

ANSI/ESD 20.20 has both administrative and technical provisions that can be tailored to specific applications or requirements. The administrative sections cover development of an ESD Control Program Plan, Training Plan, and Compliance Verification Plan (routine audits.) The technical elements have some "hard" requirements, but include many options for compliance that will allow users to develop and implement a plan for their application that is technically adequate and cost effective. The technical requirements cover areas such as grounding, personal grounding, protected areas, packaging, labeling, equipment, and handling. The technical requirements are summarized in chart form. The ANSI/ESD S20.20 is the parent document for all ESD Association standards and will be the main reference for Auditing an ESD Control Program. ANSI/ESD S20.20-1999 standard is intended to replace MIL-STD 1686 and ANSI/EIA-625 ESD Control Standards. The United States Department of Defense has adopted ANSI/ESD S20.20.

The ESD Program Standard ANSI/ESD S20.20-1999 can be downloaded here.

Another no-charge ESD Association document is ANSI/ESD S541-2003 Packaging Materials for ESD Sensitive Items, which can be downloaded here.

Click on the logo (right) to visit the ESD Association web site.

For information and to purchase EOS/ESD Standards, go to the order form.