7.5 Flooring & Grounding Architecture

The floor serves as the primary ground path for mobile personnel and carts. It must be conductive enough to drain charge but resistive enough to protect personnel from electric shock.

7.55.1 GroundingResistance &Requirements Ionization(ANSI/ESD S20.20)

• WorkstationSystem Grounding:Resistance (Person + Footwear + Floor): Must be < $3.5 \times 10^7$ ohms ($35$ megohms) when measured per ANSI/ESD STM97.1.
• Walking Test (Body Voltage Generation): Peak voltage accumulation on a person walking must be < 100 Volts.

7.5.2 Grounding Hardware

• Common Point Ground (CPG): Every benchworkstation must have a commonCPG pointblock ground.that connects the mat, the wrist strap, and the equipment chassis to Earth.
• IonizationHard Strategy:Ground vs. Soft Ground:
  • Equipment chassis: UsingHard airGround ionizers(0 Ohm).
  • Personnel/Mats: Soft Ground (1 Megohm resistor in series) to neutralizelimit non-conductivecurrent materialsto safe levels (like< plastic5mA) housings)in thatcase cannotof beaccidental grounded.
  • Packagingcontact Infrastructure:with "Pinklive Poly" vs. "Black Conductive" bags/totes storage rules.voltage.

Final Checklist

Component	Resistance Range	Test Method
ESD Floor	$10^5$ to $10^9$ Ohms	Surface Resistance Probe
Workstations	< $1.0 \times 10^9$ Ohms	Point-to-Ground
Walking Test	< 100 Volts Peak	Charge Plate Monitor