electrostatic protected area (EPA)
Highly sensitive electronic components, Electrostatic Sensitive Devices(ESD), assemblies and devices can be damaged and destroyed by electrostatic discharges (ESD).
For this reason, it must be ensured that no electrostatic discharges occur in the work area with such sensitive components. Correspondingly protected work areas are called Electrostatic Protected Areas( EPA) or Special Handling Areas( SHA). Special work regulations and protection requirements must be observed at these workplaces.
The problem occurs mainly at workplaces in electronics manufacturing and semiconductor production and is solved by various individual measures that counteract electrostatic discharge. Corresponding EPA workplaces are equipped with conductive and grounded table coverings, electrostatically conductive floors with ground potential reference surfaces( ERP) and grounded tools.
To avoid electrostatic body discharges, even the clothing and shoes of the people working are made of antistatic material and the people themselves are connected to ground potential via an antistatic wrist strap or via a grounding strap. Leakage resistances are low and all components of the electrostatic protection zone, work surfaces, floor coverings, enclosures, equipment, tools and people are grounded.
The industry has developed the Human Body Model( HBM), a person model that can be used to simulate electrostatic discharges over persons.