Auditing Techniques

Some auditing organizations focus mainly on procedures with the use of minimal ESD equipment, which are not considered laboratory grade instruments capable of mapping electrostatic fields with high resolution or detecting ESD events to the volt. Moreover, the problem with basic instrumentation is that invaluable resistance, decay, electrostatic field and ESD event data are not collected to benchmark a facility for compliance.

Some semiconductor CMs or subcontractors adhere to an ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 requirement. This standard covers some of the requirements necessary to design, establish, implement and maintain an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Control Program for activities that manufacture, process, assemble, install, package, label, service, test, inspect or otherwise handle electrical or electronic parts, assemblies and equipment susceptible to damage by electrostatic discharges greater than or equal to 100 volts Human Body Model (HBM). The disk drive industry targets down to +/-1.0 volt.

Our expertise in troubleshooting equipment centers, packaging and materials leads to corrective actions with recommended target ranges in a comprehensive audit report.

It is important that the ESD facility audit encompass accurate measurements of equipment, materials, packaging and products. RMV has the necessary ESD instrumentation to perform the procedures and as a 3rd party ESD laboratory, ESDA Standards coauthor and ghost writer of corporate level ESD documents for organizations.

RMV utilizes advanced ESD event detection measurement techniques to rate a facility for compliance to ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 procedures. Measurements, however, must extend beyond electrostatic fields and ESD events to determine the source of the questionable practices or areas in need of improvement.

Our in depth evaluation will determine if your ESD program is being implemented down to the workbench level. In addition, the ESD audit may uncover practices that require corrective action.

Again, in addition to ESD troubleshooting exercises, it will be important to verify the performance of ESD related materials used in combination with your technology for transport to and from the equipment centers to verify proper handling procedures.
RMV will make recommendations for target ranges as necessary which should be helpful in addressing ESD issues. Current practices must be verified internally or by utilizing an independent 3rd party ESD laboratory for verification.

Report Format:

RMV ESD reports are educational, clearly written, well illustrated and provide a real roadmap for improvements. The auditing techniques and test methods are referenced back to ANSI/ESD standards or standard test methods and best industry practices. The report contains a write up, computer interfaced data graphs, Excel data, summary bar charts, executive summary and a corrective action section with target dates for completion.

¹ Non laboratory equipment known as indicators which exceed 15% - 20% or more