What I Have Been Doing: I am continuing to work on a number of new ways to generate and apply ESD to integrated circuits and electronic systems that can head off problems in the field in ways standardized ESD testing cannot. There are a few themes that run through my work in this field:

1. Overcome the low duty cycle of ESD testing (<10**-7 typically or 100 ns out of one second). This allows faults that show up only in certain system states to be missed entirely during ESD testing. But out in the field where ESD happens all the time, the fault can show up causing field returns or worse, lawsuits.
2. Overcome missed cases where low to medium level ESD results in accumulating damage over time leading to field failures. Current ESD testing does not address this at all and current ESD test and simulator equipment cannot be used for this type of testing. Note that low level ESD is much more likely to happen in the field than ESD applied to systems and devices in test labs.
3. Other type of testing I am working on stress systems in various ways to detect hidden design flaws including RF injection locally in a circuit without electrical contact using inductive coupling.

Ever have an ESD problem, even though your design passed official ESD testing, especially in the field? Want to head off a much greater fraction of potential costly ESD problems in the field? Keep tuned!

1. Link to a typical case of RF interference to an analog circuit:
   http://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/raqs/raq-issue-1.html
2. Here is an example of an RF resistant op amp:
   http://archive.eetasia.com/www.eetasia.com/ART_8800541471_499501_NP_573047df.HTM
3. I have shown in the past how to make most any op amp resistant to RF:
   http://emcesd.com/tt2013/tt110113.htm
   http://emcesd.com/tt2014/tt010114.htm

Engineering News Links:

1. Knitted muscles provide power:
   https://phys.org/news/2017-01-muscles-power.html
2. Signal Integrity Journal:
   https://www.signalintegrityjournal.com/
   

1. Here is a great Dilbert video:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60P1xG32Feo
   The interesting thing about it is that I used to take apart TV sets and build ham radio equipment with the parts when I was 12 years old!
2. Remember your first day in engineering school? Was your second day like this
   http://www.memecenter.com/fun/954758/enginering-school
   

• EMC Week in Boulder City, NV:  http://emcesd.com/bcsem_emcweek.htm
• PCB West: http://www.pcbwest.com/
• IEEE EMC Symposium: http://www.emc2017.emcss.org/
• My design troubleshooting seminars in California and Michigan this spring, details forthcoming