Effect of Relative Humidity and Materials on Triboelectric Charging of USB Cables
A USB cable can be triboelectrically charged by rubbing it against a piece of clothing, such as a sweater. If a charged cable is inserted into a connector, an ESD event can upset or damage attached equipment. To investigate charge levels and estimate the resulting voltages on a USB cable, a set of experiments has been performed in a climate chamber under five different environmental conditions. These experiments were conducted by rubbing 44 different cables against sweaters made of 100% cotton, 100% polyester, 50% wool/50% nylon, and 50% wool/50% acrylic. The resulting charge levels often reflected the material pairing, as expected from the triboelectric series. The maximum charge level reached -141 nC, or -7 kV, assuming a capacitance of 20 pF between the cable and ground.
H. Rezaei et al., "Effect of Relative Humidity and Materials on Triboelectric Charging of USB Cables," Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Signal/Power Integrity (2017, Washington, DC), pp. 634-639, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Aug 2017.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/ISEMC.2017.8077945
2017 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Signal/Power Integrity (2017: Aug. 7-11, Washington, DC)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Capacitance; Electric Discharges; Electromagnetic Compatibility; Electrostatic Devices; Electrostatic Discharge (ESD); Electrostatics; Temperature; Triboelectricity; Wool; Yarn; Climate Chambers; Electrostatic Charges; Environmental Conditions; Tribo-electric Series; Triboelectric Charging; USB Cables; Cables; Relative Humidity (RH)
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Article - Conference proceedings
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