Many years ago (about 20ish) in my early Navy career, we had to go through ESD training. They brought a guy out and he demonstrated with an ESD gun and a light-up receiver bullet (it lit up when it sensed voltage) a few things: 1) you are correct that the pink poly bags don't stop ESD from passing through, yet they do stop a charge from building by friction. 2) while the charcoal bags do block ESD from an external source, they do generate a charge internally if a part bounces/rubs around inside. There was a part of your video where you started going down this road by briefly mentioning it. 3) the proper way to fully prevent ESD damage to parts is to wrap the part in the pink poly (or tubes) first, THEN put the poly-wrapped part inside the charcoal bag. Using this method, there was no way for an external ESD charge to get through to the part, and if the part bounced/rubbed around inside the bag, it didn't build a charge either. It's always driven me nuts when companies either just wrap parts in one type of bag or another, or even worse, they put the part in the charcoal bag, THEN inside a pink poly bag...totally backwards. I know many companies follow the 'ESD is a myth' mentality - we were guilty of it as well - and I think most parts are somewhat robust in this regard, we did have a couple pieces of equipment that were sensitive to ESD enough that if you breathed on it, it would blow a chip...lol. Anyway, just wanted to point that out, even though this video is pretty old. Just recently found your channel and I'm loving watching the videos so far!

We use the "static bleed" pink bags and tubes for on the bench storage and station to station transport. For customer distribution we us either the metalized film or carbon foam. The pink stuff is useful, but like any tool, use it properly or pay the price :P

It's my natural voice, so no, I won't stop.

Id love to see another test where you try the same thing with a silver bag that has been used over and over, and has a bunch of folds in it, and creases. Thanks for the great video.

Rapid Electronics falls foul of this. They sent me a bunch of static sensitive parts in standard resealable bags, and only a couple in the pink antistatic bags because they were 'particularly sensitive'. No shielding whatsoever. They told me they'd found that to be sufficient - strange considering a few of the parts were DOA. They sent replacements but nothing's changed.

Awesome Dave, great watching.I always thought the pink bags were shit. Here's a good story, I remember being told a story when I was working on the old NZ electrical scada system, they were having a lot of failed boards killed by ESD, but couldn't figure out why as the board were shipped in proper bags. Once they followed the supply train it turned out the store men were removing the boards form the bags, putting them on the shelves, and then when they were issuing the boards putting them back the bags!!

The Steve Irwin of electronics. He'd top it off if he said crikey once in awhile.

Hey, the chip recovered at last! =)

What a cool voltmeter!!

Hi Dave! Nice video! I have been working with my Element 14 Rep for years now trying to change their shipping practices. Element 14 is the worst I have ever seen for bad shipping methods. You know once they sent me one.... yes one 8050 resistor in a 3" x 4" plastic anti-static case. I love the case... but probably cost them a lot to pack that resistor.... LOL

The pink bags do project a SEP (Someone Else's Problem) field, so electric current goes and find something else to affect.

Thanks for the support, glad you liked it.

Same here, at first I was watching, because I wanted some multimeter review, but now I've been watching his videos for approx, 2 hours or so. This is great!

My monitor died. You should stick a warning to that video :(

Next time you order a component from E14 the warehouse guys will be moonwalking across a Nylon carpet before wrapping them.

The pink poly is an older tech than the nickel bags. Another fun fact is that the organic coating will, over time, cause embrittlement of plastics like housings. This is manifested particularly in areas of induced stress like mechanical screw inserts.

In aviation they always stress using anti static straps and protective caps and bags. Like in the video stray charges can make something not work but quite often they can cause something to have intermittent faults. Not good at 500 mph.

EEVblog Wait, you didn't try to kill it through the shielded bag!

Great demo Dave.

True. The pink bags are actually for things like hardware. They are not to provide any protection but just to provide a way to handle hardware in something that won't create a charge. ONLY the metallic black bags protect what is in them.

Went to a computer shop for a few sticks of memory, back in the DIMM/SIMM days, and the guy went to the cabinet, opened the metal-film bag, pulled out 2 sticks by holding the edge connectors, while standing on carpet (you know the carpet that you easily get a zap off) and proceeded to hand me the bare modules, I'm sorry to say that I went balistic, there was no way in hell I was going to touch those modules, I asked for metal film bags, and he said "This is how we sell them, now that will be $xxx for the modules, I walked out after giving his some education about the handling of those devices, and all the customers I guess thought I knew what I was talking about also left the shop.

This video is a million times more entertaining than my work's ESD training video!

Thanks for the video. Keep up the good work! One point, that tan stuff from your makerbot you were demonstrating with isn't mylar, it's polyimide (ie, kapton). mylar would also generate a big charge on your meter.

not surprised you killed those chips if you sparked them with a piezo igniter!! not something that should happen in normal storage and use...hopefully!

Thanks Dave, I'm always excited to see you post another video!

It's the discharge current that is destructive. A high electric field alone will not destroy devices. The pink-poly and plastic tube will provide some ESD protection just do to the fact the plastic bag material has very low conductivity from outside to inside. When you grab a part through a pink-poly bag, you can transfer some charge to the part because the electric field will pass right through the plastic. When you or someone else reaches into the bag to remove it before the charge has time to bleed-off through the weakly conductive coating, that's when a part can get zapped. If you make sure you allow enough time for any potential difference to equalize to the mat the bag is setting on, and do-not subject the pink-poly bags to voltages that cause dielectric breakdown in the plastic, pink-poly bags can be quite safe. A shielding bag will block external electric fields like a Faraday cage.

This video should be shown to all the employees of CEX (shop that deals with buying seeling and swapping of 2nd hand stuff) Remember being in there a month back and the manager told the tellar make sure to ask the customer if he wants a bag incase there is any static. Needless to say it was not a shielded bag,

I don't think I've ever been bothered about ESD, my microcontrollers and general cmos devices just get thrown where ever I have space. I don't think I have ever killed a chip this way, although my haphazard treatment of them sometimes means pins break off! I'm a bit more cautious of expensive stuff like computer hardware, but that only goes as far as holding and earthed metal object. It's not even unknown for me to unsolder a pic chip over a gas stove and reuse it in another project.

so in other words when they say it's antistatic, they are totally correct. they don't say it's statically shielded. So if my parts are shipped in pink bags and or tubes and they move about in transit no static will be generated, and if the packaging is processed an a static free environment and the depacker or packer is wearing the straps etc. that they should all is hunky dory. I'd rather that you (instead of ranting over a non-event) talk about how they too often don't package their chips in a manner that maintains pin integrity or how they so often send the wrong parts.

Where I work, ESD is a super serious business. The entire workforce on the production and assembly floors has several layers of protection. An ESD smock that has metallic fibers that discharge static whenever a grounded surface is touched, ESD wrist straps, and ESD heel straps that discharge into the grounded floor. Even water used in sponges at soldering stations is de-ionized and although I don't fully grasp how it works entirely, I know that the water is DI so it doesn't impart any charge to your soldering iron. I think this is redundant because the iron tips are grounded thought he iron itself, but whatever, can't be too careful when we are making life saving machines that are also worth several thousand dollars each. Also, in front of many stations is grounded mats on top of the already grounded floor. We also check the integrity of the heel straps and wrist straps twice daily. Hell, we even clean our benches with a cleaner that dissipates static charges. We also do package some boards inside pink bubble wrap if they are delicate, but they are already inside of proper shielding bags as well.

I have watched a lot of how to videos on YT, and almost all of yours. You are by far the most knowledgeable, interesting, comprehensive and easy to understand person I have come across. Despite the Australian accent :-) ( from NZ ). Thanks for the great contribution to the electronic community. I am a subscriber, and will continue to do so.

Thank you Dave, I always learn something watching your video's!

@EEVblog I got some conductive boxes with conductive foam in them. they are awesome! And thanks for a good demo video!

Putting a fat spark across thin polythene will puncture it, so basically the same as drilling a hole and then complaining there's a leak! The main point to realise about ESD is that certain components, notably power mosfets, are very sensitive to gate overvoltage. Even as little as 30v can damage one of these, and the current required to do damage is very small. Hence, very careful handling of these is required when off-board. Most ICs are nowhere near as sensitive as that.

P,S As usual your standards are up with the pros. excellent!

@TheCaptainD82 Ah, that's editing for you. That's actually a new chip installed for further testing. That scene just happened to have the commentary I wanted at that point.

it's reassuring since it means that we probably only kill sensitive devices when we actually feel/hear or see a spark. we can take precautions but we should not be too afraid

fantastic videos! helping me grasp static at last

@DFCad1 BTW, I had to try several times to kill the bare chip without any protection. So it actually wasn't easy to kill that chip with the zapper even under ideal direct circumstances.

It's all well and good using a piezo spark generator to kill chips but you'd have to shuffle around on a carpet for 3 hours or ruffle your nylon t-shirt forever to get a spark that of that magnitude to kill a an IC. Said carpets and clothing would not be present in an EE environment.

@Listn2CKY No, they simply screwed up, and have admitted it. Element 14/Farnell usually semiconductors in proper static shielding bags.

I work in the PCB production portion of a factory, and some knucklehead from the assembly side sent back boards that needed rework (namely cause the same person screwed up the installation) two boards in one bag, which is in and of itself a violation of ESD guidelines, and sent them back in a regular old sandwich bag. Needless to say the quality team, myself included, had a shit fit. The boards, to the tune of a few hundred dollars, had to be scrapped and recycled as well. When a board with an LCD screen or something is sent to the production area (keep in mind, this is maybe a few hundred meters), they are put in an ESD shielding bag and then wrapped in anti-static pink bubble wrap, and the bins they are transported in are conductive, on a cart with a strap that drags on dissipative floors. The material handler is wearing a conductive smock and heel straps as well. A proper manufacturer takes this kind of thing seriously, and seeing chips sent thought the mail, likely in regular cardboard maybe even with styrofoam or paper packing material, is frankly painful. I've complained to Digikey about similar issues when I purchase items from them.

Excellent video, have wondered about some of these bags.

I have never once seen a chip killed by esd in normal handling, in my life. Glad you showed it actually happening, although heavily on purpose

I've always been curious why exactly static kills active devices.. like what happens at the silicon level that breaks the solid state device?

All the kits I get from China have microcontrollers and other sensitive devices stuck unto pieces of styrofoam, wrapped in cling wrap, stuffed into ziplock bags, wrapped in bubble wrap, stuck in cheap mailing bags, handled none-too-carefully by the post... and I have yet to get a destroyed chip. I have received a few dead LEDs, but diodes, transistors, MOSFETS, TTLS, CMOS, all the sensitive semiconductors all work OK when I build the kits.

I was taught that static travels on the surface of the bags, and that's why it's extremely important to full seal them. Could you try the same experiment but put the static generator inside a completely sealed bag? If what I was taught is true then the static isn't jumping through the bag but around it.

Dave can you please explain more about this surface voltage meter? Thanks!

lol... I get mine in kitchen ziplocks

@mdesm2005 I had to take it out of the circuit to put in the bag and the tube, of course. A populated board has the pins connected to other devices and power rails etc. This can effectively make the inputs more robust. But a populated board can also increase the chance of a charge entering a pin too, so it's a bit of give and take.

I've been looking into getting an ESD mat and strap for a while but all the decent ones seem a bit on the pricey side. I want something that can handle soldering on too and not get easily scratched up. Have you had any experience with the ESD spray paints? Would be useful because I could coat my component drawers too.

Dave, Love your video blogs, especially Teardown Tuesday. I actually have used one of these grey anti static bags to hold the memory cards for my games console during travel. It's probably overkill but I'm not taking any chances. The bag was from a 320GB hard drive.

We have to put all CCA and any microcircuit components in a pink poly bag with open end folded over and then place it in the silver shield bag and fold the open end over. Placing an ESD warning sticker to keep the silver bag closed. Any cca with dagger pins have to be blocked in black ESD foam. Then the box or container has to have an ESD sensitive label affixed to each face of the container or box.

@DFCad1 Err, I'm not dumb enough to come to the conclusion that ESD tubes are safe based on some simple ad-hock testing with a peizo-lighter zapper! The whole ESD industry is heavily researched and built around the fact that ESD tubes do not provide adequate protection. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't kill the chip through the ESD tube, but it was not entirely unexpected.

I've never seen one of those pink bags. Right off the bat it looks nothing like a real antistatic bag. I'm amazed that: 1) anyone would think the bag would be effective. 2) a company cheaps out so much to swap a real antistatic bag with that pink one. They're going to get more returns they have to pay for that will cost way more than they'll ever save by crapping out on cheap bags.

Excellent demonstration

Anti-static bags aren't conductive thus they provide not shielding. They are "anti-static" to the extent that they are made such that they don't tend to build up a charge themselves. Generally in shipping I am guessing they constitute a cheaper alternative. On the off chance something zaps a chip it may be cheaper just to resend another chip but I don't know. Oh, he covers this pretty quick in the video.

@jpelczar Yes, because then all the leads are at the same potential, so no damage can occur. This is why conductive foam works.

@radioguyuk It's about teaching people proper ESD handling techniques, in case you missed it...

@gryzman Read the text overlay, and the other comments.

time to get an ESD gun...I WANT MOAR. On a more serious note, as a complete beginner in electronics (took it up as a hobby), this made me appreciate how important it is to take into account the electrostatic properties of my workspace. Cheers!

You know it is odd... I used to work in a facility testing storage servers for one of the top three Storage firms. All the PSU's came in those pink bags. The Motherboards etc came in the metal shielded bags.

At work we are scared straight via annual training and recertification on ESD to the point I feel as if my workbench at home is a lost cause.... Dave how about a video on setting up a basic safe ESD workstation..? With a portable mat etc??

That's is what's so great about Mouser, everything that "might" even be affected by static are sent in the right bags.

In regards to your comment about the resistors not getting fried in that bag, I actually read an app note from Vishay the other day detailing how thin film resistors are susceptible to tolerance alterations from ESD. So you never know.

This was very illuminating, I didn't realise the voltages involved, I'll keep those black bags and pink foam etc. from now on, another good vid Dave

In the early days where getting one of these bags or conductive sponges was not an easy task, my dad taught me to wrap the CMOS devices (mostly 4000 series back then) in aluminum foil. I've been using this method until today for my small stock at home, and it never let me down for the typical handling. I never tried to zap them with a high-energy Tesla coil discharge, though, but I wonder if the whole thing would be set on fire! :)

Here I thought plastic was an insulator which is why they cover wires in the stuff. I would think that a spark shouldn't pass through a plastic bag any more than it would through the plastic coating of a wire.

Dave, the led started blinking again! 17:00

So, if the pink bag doesn't protect from static, doesn't that make it just a regular plastic bag?

You should do a teardown of that surface DC voltmeter :)

@mgregggphone Yes, you are correct, it's kapton, my mistake.

Cant believe these companies are not sticking to the ESD laws we all have to comply with when we are at work.

Very nice mythbusting video. One more thing i would like to see about this myth is to actually kill a device with statics, not piezo, that generates more stable long time current, than statics itself.

@DanglePointer Short answer: yes. Your finger can easily carry 20kV or more on a dry day (if you have ever drawn a fat spark on a doorknob or car door you have experienced this). A single touch can discharge this into an IC, causing failure or "walking wounded" - a failure that occurs hours or even days later due to the earlier damage. In industry, it is not worth the risk to not wear wrist straps. At a hobby level, it can be less intrusive or evident - still worth the $30, tho

That's actually kind of embarrassing for Element 14, I hope they have changed their packaging now!

@EEVblog are ne555s and lm324s as sensitive to high voltage as the chips you were testing?

Hi. I'm new to electronics. How should transistors like the 2N3904 be stored? Have you made a short tutorial on safely storing and handling components besides this one? What are the inexpensive options for beginners just getting into the field, but don't have a ton of components yet? Cheers

Great video, never really even considered ESD. (I'm a newbie of course). By the way so what is the proper way of storing components? What type of components are prone to ESD damage? Thanks for the videos!

Its tough to tell...did you do a video cut after you were holding up the pink bag? It looks almost like the LED started blinking again while you were waiving the bag around. Wouldn't be the first time a damaged device started working, only to fail again later...

Your voice is what keeps this interesting even though It quite often goes over my head.

@DFCad1 Anyone trying to teach proper engineering technique and practice will never be wrong.

Hello, I believe the permittivity of the grey plastic bag may protect the circuits by reducing the E field. I imagine that.

Good video on the differences between static dissapative and static shielding. Learned a memory reminder of how to properly pack electronics as to put on pink panties (pink static dissapative bag) then the grey skirt (grey static shield bag), after that never forgot which is supposed to go where.

I rub the inside of my plastic parts bins with dryer fabric sheets. It seems to work for me - gets rid of the static, and since they have a lid, it seems to keep it that way. Haven't lost any parts, and haven't noticed any static.

One lead of the static generator was floating in the air, it had no ground reference. It was only coupled by the capacitance of the lead.

@eevblog thanks for the reply dave, I've never looked into ESD and as a hobbiest i had no idea that it could build up so high so easily.

Here's a question... what about the grey bags with the black lines all over them? I assume those are good too? I have a couple old motherboards and a graphics card in those laying around, I always save those foil-y grey bags when I get them because they're nice to have around to store used parts in.

Good demonstration! I hope my colleague (Gergő) will see this!

I worked in a computer resources dept of a college and not observing static safety prceedures could get you fired. most of my work was opening and cleaning/testing pcs and a wrist strap was the first thing to do at the bench.

@javo0112 They are conductive boxes and foam. Good stuff!

I have had the stores at an aerospace company remove my components from their packaging and put them in a plastic bag with protective grease before giving them to me.

hey just wondering that metallic bag "the good one" lol. um how would that handle an EMP

Had an eBay seller ship me some cards wrapped in paper towels and bubble wrap recently In a great shock to no one, they were ALL dead

Great video. Thank you.

When I was a kid we built out these Lighter-thingies and zapped each other. It's pretty fun to have such a device around.

What's the opinion on the hybrid type bags? I'm talking about the ones which seem to be a combination of esd poly with a black, shielded type mesh printed on them?

This is a very good Debunk. Thank you Dave! I would be interested to see if the pink ESD foam has the same effect as the bag.

Hal, Obviously you've proven that pink "anti-static" bags don't work. Have you done any tests on used metal shielding bags, ones with pin holes or staple holes; or one that been wrinkled or creased?

You have best science channel!