Hi Jim. You wrote:
<We are subject to 8kV air discharge and 6kV contact discharge. 1. Does this construction sound like an ESD test failure waiting to happen?> ---snip--- In my experience, if you use a 'normal' proprietary membrane switch/panel, with the half inch dead zone at the edges that you describe, you wont have an ESD problem, at least not by breakdown of the membrane at 8kV. However, ESD discharges at the periphery of your membrane panel, if mounted on a conductive (metal) panel, will cause highly intrusive spikes to be generated within the membrane conductors. It would be wise to decouple the ultimate destinations of these conductors with a small capacitor to avoid spurious operation of the related electronics, particularly if you have high speed latches etc. being driven by the membrane switches. LCD panels are temporarily visually affected by the 8kV potential present on an ESD probe while it looks for a discharge path, happily the front glass of the LCD panel is easily capable of holding off 8kV, and I've never had an LCD driver fail due to induced energy from adjacent discharges. (YET!) Another tuppence worth... Regards, Chris Dupres Surrey UK.
