Industry taking closer look at ESD problems. Push is on to implement global standards to reduce product failure rates Claire Serant EBN (11/20/2002 1:20 PM EST) As components designed into miniaturized products become more sensitive and complex, several electronics companies are adopting global electrostatic discharge (ESD) standards to reduce product failure rates on the plant floor and in the field. For nearly two decades, electronics suppliers have been aware of the need for comprehensive ESD standards, but instead have been applying a patchwork of controls to their manufacturing and test processes. Sluggish market demand, however, has freed management in all sectors of the industry to take a closer look at how improving ESD processes can reduce expenses. "There's been a recognition throughout the industry that change in technology over the last 20 years requires implementing controls and processes to ensure that manufacturers are producing the highest-reliability and -quality products they can," noted Bob Hough, a quality assurance engineer at Lucent Technologies Inc.'s North Andover, Mass., plant. At the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) meeting in Kista, Sweden, this week, a main focus will be educating manufacturers on how certifying their plants under global ANSI/ESD S 20.20 requirements can improve production flow. "Without proper ESD controls, manufacturers will have higher failure rates in their factories, higher failure rates in their customers' environment," Hough said. "They will have longer-term [product] reliability issues, which will cause repair costs to go up." To promote ESD certification, the ESD Association (ESDA), an organization founded in 1982 and based in Rome, N.Y., is training ISO 9000 registrars. The registrars in turn will help manufacturers and their suppliers make sure they meet ANSI/ESD S 20.20 requirements during the production process. The ESDA includes members from Delphi Delco Electronic Systems, Eastman Kodak Co., Intersil Corp., Micron Technology Inc., and Texas Instruments Inc. For the past two years, the group has pushed for third-party auditors to verify that all ESD controls are in place, according to Ron Gibson, ESD program managerat Celestica Inc., a Toronto-based EMS provider. By adhering to the ESDA's standards, OEMs will no longer have to ask their suppliers to conform to a variety of ESD controls for numerous products that are assembled, manufactured, and tested within the same facility, he said. "There's a lot of acceptance of ANSI/ ESD S 20.20 standards not only in North America but in Asia and Europe," said Gibson, who is a member of the ESDA. "But we have a lot of work to do. We're trying to work with some of the European standards organizations, especially the IEC, which is a sister group to the ISO 9000 standards group." So far, 23 plants around the globe have been certified by the ESDA, according to Gibson. Lucent, NASA, Rockwell Collins Inc., and Celestica have embraced the need for global ESD certification. The ESDA's challenge is likely to get easier as more OEMs realize the benefits of global ESD certification, said Steve Halperin, the organization's president. The economic downturn has forced OEMs and their suppliers to trim operating costs, a key factor in the electronics industry's renewed interest in ESD. "When business is good, the challenge for manufacturers is to build, ship, and collect [revenue]," Halperin said. "ESD is not a major factor when the manufacturers have customer commitments. [But] when profits are tight, the cost of ESD in terms of productivity and product reliability and profitability becomes extremely important." The average OEM conservatively loses between 4% and 8% of its revenue because of ESD, Halperin said. "The impact of ESD is not just the failure in the plant, but partial degradation of devices that may fail under warranty, which costs more to fix to the customer's satisfaction," he said. But Howard Fuller, vice president of quality control at EMS provider Solectron Corp., Milpitas, Calif., doesn't want to perform third-party audits for problems he said don't exist. "ESD certification has not been a concern for us," Fuller said. "Every one of our sites is ISO 9000 certified and we do regular ESD [internal] audits at all of our plants." Other EMS companies, however, are moving quickly to become ESD certified. Celestica, for example, has 15 plants worldwide that have met the ESDA's certification standards, Gibson said, and all of the contractor's plants are slated to adopt the new global standards. Celestica requires all new employees to attend an ESD orientation. Re-training is required every two years for workers that handle ESD-sensitive products such as ICs. The company also approves of the third-party certification process. "It demonstrates commitment to ESD control and is a separate validation that we're in compliance with the industry standard," Gibson said. Celestica is not alone. Lucent is accelerating its ESD certification push. The Murray Hill, N.J., company has optical networking plants in Qingdao, China; North Andover, Mass.; and Columbus, Ohio, that meet the new ESD standards. By January, Lucent plants in Campinas, Brazil, and Blanchardtown, Ireland, will qualify for ANSI/ESD S 20.20 approval. "Any time suppliers can validate their manufacturing systems, it's good for business," Lucent's Hough said. "We understand it will take a while for suppliers to put their [global ESD] plans in place since most of them have some form of ESD control. But the global standards enable us to hand it out to them with clear requirements that are spelled out in a document." IBM Corp. uses its own inspectors to make sure suppliers meet its ESD requirements, but is interested in the ANSI/ESD S 20.20 standards, said John Kinnear, an advisory engineer at the Armonk, N.Y., company. "If we had [more] customers requiring us to work with suppliers that have global ESD standards, I'm sure we would do it," Kinnear said.