How to protect the dev board

[Fra]

Hi,

just started using my Nexys 4 DDR but I also have a ZynQ one, everytime I need to power up/down the board its very difficult not to touch it ,I am wondering if I am at risk of frying the board with some static discharge and eventually how can I prevent it?

cheers,

 

Francesco

[zygot]

You're wise to be thinking about the potential for ESD damage to your FPGA boards. You don't need to freak out about it though.

A good lab environment has controlled humidity and anti-static treatments for floors and work tables. They also use anti-static work pads with a high impedance connection to ground to drain off static charge as well as wrist straps that serve the same function. Sensitive equipment ( such as pcbs not enclosed in a metal grounded chassis ) would be placed on these pads and the user would use the wrist strap to avoid static charge buildup. I consider Digilent FPGA boards to be in the same class as a custom prototype board in an engineering lab. The fallout for destroying a precious prototype at work is likely greater than losing personal educational product; but both would be more painful than I;d want to endure.

If you use your boards in a typical residential room with carpets and heating that produces dry air in the winter the chances of generating enough static charge that might damage your boards is pretty high. If might not be practical to turn a spare bedroom into a class-10 lab, but you can find a small anti-static pad and wrist band at a reasonable costs from most electronic distributors or supply houses. Only you can decide if this is a reasonable investment for you.

BTW, you don't need to actually touch your board to damage it... ESD can arc though air over short distances. Edited December 24, 2023 by zygot

[Fra]

Hi Zygot,

yes home environemnt lots of carpets so yes I need an antistatic pad I will buy one.

Thank you very much