Comparing Antistats versus Inherently Conductive Polymer Coated Type I Moisture Barrier Bags for Humidity Dependence & Charge Generation at Low RH

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protective packaging sourcing is not only restricted to the USA and Europe. Products from the Pacific Rim provide end users with the opportunity to secure static control materials and packaging over the web and through new channels of distribution. In recent years, contract manufacturing (CM) organizations and suppliers may have sacrificed quality for price or purchased packaging that is “suspect counterfeit.” Figure 1 illustrates a non-conforming aluminum Type 1 moisture barrier bag utilized inprocess.

Some critical issues resolved in the early 1990s for static control packages are now resulting in corrective actions for ESD non-conformance, contamination, or suspect counterfeiting.

As recent events dictate, reliance upon the U.S. Federal Government for oversight must be supplemented by user due diligence. Democratic lawmakers boldly stated that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has insufficient funding and power to maintain appropriate oversight and regulation of imported products.¹ Medical device packaging engineers need to design ESD control packaging that will protect medical devices from Tribolectrification while ensuring attenuation (shielding) from high voltage discharges, and, at the same time, are contamination free. Semiconductor and disk drive manufacturers define their ESD packaging requirements for contract manufacturers to ensure validation by means of annual on-site assessments. Consequently, ESD certification training combined with 3rd party supplier package testing is practiced before products are placed on a materials qualification list (MQL).

Approximately sixty percent of the author’s testing of offshore ESD safe packaging, especially polymers, has fallen short in meeting minimal requirements set forth in ANSI, EIA, IEC, ASTM, Military Standards, and JEDEC requirements. Moreover, reference to ESD protocols for ASTM Flexible Barrier Packaging and ISO requirements appear minimal, at best.