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: 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 and technical range recommendations are
listed in Table 1. 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 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.