Electrostatic Breakdown Model

It is believed that there are three main types of charged bodies which cause electrostatic breakdown, the operator, equipment type, and the device itself.

Human Body Model (HBM)

A human body charged with static electricity will discharge upon making contact with an electronic device, such as an IC, resulting in electrostatic breakdown. When the charged object is a human body, the charge released is extremely large.

Machine Model (MM)

Equipment charged with static electricity will discharge upon making contact with a device. This may result in electrostatic breakdown.

Charged Device Model

The charge of the device itself is the cause of electrostatic breakdown.
Components in a charged state, upon contact with the machine frame or tooling, may result in static discharge.