Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection

Protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD) is essential while removing or connecting cables to the network analyzer. Static electricity can build up on your body and can easily damage sensitive internal circuit elements when discharged. Static discharges too small to be felt can cause permanent damage. To prevent damage to the instrument:

• Always have a grounded, conductive table mat in front of your test equipment.

• Always wear a grounded wrist strap, connected to a grounded conductive table mat, having a 1 MΩ resistor in series with it, when making test setup connections.

• Always wear a heel strap when working in an area with a conductive floor. If you are uncertain about the conductivity of your floor, wear a heel strap.

• Always ground yourself before you clean, inspect, or make a connection to a static-sensitive device or test port. You can, for example, grasp the grounded outer shell of the test port or cable connector briefly.

• Always ground the center conductor of a test cable before making a connection to the analyzer test port or other static-sensitive device. This can be done as follows:

• 1. Connect a short (from your calibration kit) to one end of the cable to short the center conductor to the outer conductor.

  2. While wearing a grounded wrist strap, grasp the outer shell of the cable connector.

  3. Connect the other end of the cable to the test port and remove the short from the cable.

See Analyzer Accessories for ESD part numbers.