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A Mountable Electrostatic Discharge Piece
Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge5
(ESD) piece, more particularly to an electrostatic discharge
(ESD) piece which is mountable to a surface of a supporting
tool.
Background of the invention10
The importance of ESD (Electrostatic discharge) control in
today's micro-electronics is already a well known fact.
Manufacturers of microchips around the world are putting more
and more attention in this area to reduce microchips damage15
due to electrostatic discharge.
The intense market competition & the continual cost-down of
the consumer electronics products like TV, video, computer,
handphone & a host of other electronic devices has put great20
pressure for the manufacturers to aggressively seeking cost-
down in the use of various production and supporting materials
including the use of ESD Chairs.
The use of ESD chairs in a mass production operations in a25
typical electronics manufacturing environment is not only a
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high cost implementation, the replacement and the maintenance
cost to keep the ESD chairs in top conditions are also quite a
substantial long term investments.
One of the techniques to cut down the cost of ESD chair is the5
innovative use of an ESD chair cover. The use of an ESD chair
cover is disclosed under PCT no. PCT/MY2008/000198. However,
the use of an ESD chair cover as highlighted in PCT no.
PCT/MY2008/000198 lacks the feature for use in a cleanroom
environment. The many wrinkles, creeps and folds along the10
circular edge of the ESD chair cover actually can cause
accumulation of dust or dirt over time including the portion
underneath the perimeter edge of the chair seat thus causing
particles contamination issue for use in a cleanroom.
15
In addition to the shortcoming above, ESD chair cover cannot
be used on chairs with seat design physically moulded to the
back rest. Such limitation also applies to the chair seat and
back rest fabricated as one piece design structure.
20
The use of an ESD chair pad replacing the use of ESD chair
cover can help overcome the particle contamination issue in a
cleanroom as well as permitting a wider coverage of
applications in different chair designs, etc.
25
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An ESD chair pad can be cut, fabricated or die cut from a
standard roll of static dissipative/conductive mat and be
affixed onto the surface of a normal chair seat.
A logical solution is to attach a double sided adhesive tape5
at the bottom of the pad/mat to keep the pad/mat in place when
attaching on the surface of the chair seat.
Subsequently a ground cord is used to snap onto a snap-button
riveted on the mat surface prior to the sticking of such mat10
surface onto the chair seat surface. The ground cord connects
the surface of the mat to the underneath of the chair seat
where it is electrically connected to the ground in draining
away harmful static charge in a typical electrostatic
protected area (EPA).15
However, the use of adhesive tape not only cause transfer of
adhesive onto the surface (e.g. chair seat, table top, etc.)
after long term use and cause unnecessary contamination to the
workplace, it also lose its adhesive strength over time that20
eventually lead to delaminating issue & other logistic
problem.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a
mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece which able to25
eliminate the need of cumbersome adhesive application during
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installation, therefore no unnecessary contamination to the
workplace due to the remains or the transfer of adhesive
residue.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide the5
mountable ESD piece which is very simple in design and quick
in installation, therefore saving time and workmanship
especially in a labour-intensive work environment.
Therefore, further research and investigation will be required10
to develop a workable and cost-effective solution to overcome
the above shortcomings.
Summary of invention
15
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it
discloses a mountable ESD piece comprises a pad, at least one
pair of slits which includes a first slit provided adjacent
one edge of said pad and a second slit provided adjacent the
opposing edge of said pad, and an ESD band having each end20
penetrates upwards from a bottom surface of said pad through
said each slit and continuously looping over said edge from
the adjacent slit of a top surface of said pad until both ends
are engaged together under said bottom surface to effectively
drain the static charge from said top surface of said25
supporting tool to the bottom surface and finally to the
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ground.
Brief description of the drawings
Figure 1 shows a top perspective view of a mountable5
electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece in accordance to the
present invention.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments
10
In the following detailed description, numerous specific
details are set forth in order to provide a thorough
understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood
by those of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may
be practiced without these specific details. In other15
instances, well-known methods, procedures and/or components
have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the
invention. Reference will now be made in detail to the
preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of
which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.20
Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a top perspective view
of a mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) made
in accordance to the present invention. The mountable ESD
piece (10) includes a flat pad (11) having electrostatic25
discharge capability, the pad (11) is provided with at least a
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pair of slits (12) wherein a first slit (12a) located adjacent
one edge (11a) of the pad (11) and a second slit (12b) located
adjacent the opposing edge (11b) of the pad (11), and an ESD
band (13) having each end (13a, 13b) penetrates upwards from
the bottom surface (11d) of the pad (11) through the5
respective slits (12) leaving a first portion (21) of the ESD
band (13) as a connecting strip (21) at the bottom surface of
the pad (11) and continuously looping over the edge of the pad
(11) from the adjacent slit (12) from the top surface (11c) of
the pad (11), till both ends (13a, 13b) are engaged under the10
bottom surface (11d) of the pad (11) forming a second portion
(22) of the ESD band (13) as a fastening strip (22). The ESD
piece (10) is mountable to a surface of a supporting tool (not
shown).
15
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the flat
pad (11) is preferably having the top surface (11c) includes
conductive or static dissipative property and the bottom
surface (11d) includes insulative property. The conductive or
static dissipative property is chosen from a wide array of ESD20
mats available in the ESD products in the market. The pad (11)
can be made of rubber, plastic, paper or a combination
thereof.
The ESD band (13) can be an elastic or non-elastic material25
with its ends engaged to each other and attached by an
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attachment means (14). The attachment means (14) is not
limited to the mechanical, heat, chemical or adhesive means to
provide a complete loop attachment system to effectively mount
the ESD piece (10) onto the supporting tool. The supporting
tool can be a chair seat, table or bench top, trolley top or5
any other panel surface in an ESD-sensitive production
environment in the electronics industry. The ESD band (13) can
be of any length and is adjustable so as to form a suitable
loop size to fit or suit the size of any supporting tool
object to be mounted.10
The supporting tool is an electrostatic discharge (ESD) or
non-ESD object. The ESD piece (10) of the present invention is
placed on the surface of the supporting tool having the
connecting strip (21) portion of the ESD band (13) in between15
the bottom surface of the pad (11) and the top surface of the
supporting tool and the fastening strip (22) portion of the
ESD band (13) is looped onto the bottom surface of the
supporting tool to form an electrically continuous loop system
to electrically connect the top surface of the pad (11) to the20
bottom surface underneath the supporting tool.
Two or more pair of slits can be made on the pad (11) to
enable more ESD bands to fix thereon in order to accommodate
different sizes and shapes of the supporting tools to be25
mounted to provide an unique system to drain static charge
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from the surface of the ESD piece (10) through at least one
ESD band (13) to the conductive path and finally to ground.
Optionally, a resistor (30) can be connected in series at any
point between the bottom surface of the pad (11) and5
connecting strip (21) portion of the ESD band (13). This is
achieved by the attachment of a resistor (30), preferably a
film resistor (30) under the pad and electrically connected to
the top with the help of sewn conductive threads (
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forms without departing from its essential characteristics.
The present embodiments is, therefore, to be considered as
merely illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the
invention being indicated by the claims rather than the
foregoing description, and all changes which come within5
therefore intended to be embraced therein.
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Claims
1. A mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10)
comprising:
a flat pad (11) which includes static dissipative property;5
at least one pair of slits (12) which includes a first slit
(12a) provided adjacent one edge (11a) of said pad (11) and a
second slit (12b) provided adjacent the opposing edge (11b) of
said pad (11); and
an electrostatic discharge (ESD) band (13) having each end10
(13a, 13b) penetrates upwards from a bottom surface (11d) of
said pad (11) through said each slit (12a, 12b) parting a
first portion (21) of said ESD band (13) as a connecting strip
(21) portion which engages said bottom surface (11d) of said
paid (11) and continuously looping over said edge (11a, 11b)15
from the adjacent slit (12a, 12b) of a top surface (11c) of
said pad (11) until both ends (13a, 13b) are engaged together
under said bottom surface (11d) forming a second portion (22)
of said ESD band (13) as a fastening strip (22) portion,
whereby said ESD piece (10) is mountable on a top surface of a20
supporting tool and secured in place by looping said fastening
strip (22) portion over and onto a bottom surface of said
supporting tool to effectively drain the static charge from
said top surface of said supporting tool to the bottom surface
and finally to the ground.25
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2. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 1, wherein said ESD band (13) is made of
elastic material.
3. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as5
claimed in claim 1, wherein said ESD band (13) is made of non-
elastic material.
4. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 1, wherein said ESD band (13) having its both10
ends (13a, 13b) engaged and attached by an attachment means
(14).
5. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 4, wherein said ESD band (13) can be any15
length and said length is adjustable.
6. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 5, wherein said attachment means includes but
not limited to the mechanical, heat, chemical or adhesive20
means.
7. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 1, wherein said wherein said pad (11) can be
made of but not limited to rubber, plastic, paper or a25
combination thereof.
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8. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 7, wherein said pad (11) having its bottom
surface (11d) includes insulative property.
9. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as5
claimed in claim 1, wherein said supporting tool can be a
chair seat, table, bench top, trolley top or any other panel
surface in an ESD-sensitive production environment.
10. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as10
claimed in claim 1, wherein said ESD piece (10) further
comprising a resistor (20) connected in series at any point
between said bottom surface (11d) of the pad (11) and said
connecting strip (21) portion of said ESD band (13) and
electrically connected to the top surface (11c) of said pad15
with a sewn conductive thread (31).
11. The mountable electrostatic discharge (ESD) piece (10) as
claimed in claim 10, wherein said ESD piece (10) further
comprising an insulative spot (25) provided at said top20
surface (11c) of said pad (11) where said ESD band (13)
emerges from each slit (12a, 12b).
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Abstract
A Mountable Electrostatic Discharge Piece
A mountable ESD piece (10) comprises a pad (11), at least one5
pair of slits (12) which includes a first slit (12a) provided
adjacent one edge (11a) of said pad (11) and a second slit
(12b) provided adjacent the opposing edge (11b) of said pad
(11), and an ESD band (13) having each end (13a, 13b)
penetrates upwards from a bottom surface (11d) of said pad10
(11) through said each slit (12a, 12b) and continuously
looping over said edge (11a, 11b) from the adjacent slit (12a,
12b) of a top surface (11c) of said pad (11) until both ends
(13a, 13b) are engaged together under said bottom surface
(11d) to effectively drain the static charge from said top15
surface of said pad (11) to the bottom surface of the
supporting tool and finally to the ground.
Most illustrative diagram: Figure 1