Emerging Professionals: Tech Talks

Tech Talk: Sparks of Disaster: Real-World Tales of Manufacturing ESD Failures

Date & Time:
May 6, 2025
Location:
Virtual | Zoom
1:00 PM Eastern Time (US)
Tech Talk: Sparks of Disaster: Real-World Tales of Manufacturing ESD Failures

Overview

May 6, 2025 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join us for a captivating town hall-style tech talk where a panel of seasoned experts share their firsthand experiences with Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) failures in the electronics industry. This engaging discussion will go beyond theory, delving into real-world case studies with visual examples of damaged components and insightful analysis of ESD symptoms (catastrophic, latent, and soft failures).

Our esteemed panel includes:

  1. Dave Girard, Staticon Support Services, Inc.
  2. Dave Swenson, Affinity Static Control Consulting, L.L.C.
  3. John Kinnear, EOS/ESD Association, Inc
  4. Matt Strickland, Boeing

Prepare for an enlightening session where these experts recount their "war stories" with ESD, offering valuable lessons learned and practical insights applicable to factory control and beyond. The interactive format encourages audience participation, fostering a dynamic exchange of knowledge and perspectives. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best and fortify your understanding of ESD's critical impact on electronic systems.

 

Dave Girard is currently an ESD Technical Consultant and owner of Staticon Support Services, Inc., located in Tampa, Florida. Dave has been a member of the volunteer ESDA consensus body since 2016 and is involved in the ESD standards development process.  He supports numerous ESD Association Working Groups in addition to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Prior to his retirement from Honeywell Aerospace in 2019, he ran the Honeywell Aerospace corporate ESD program in addition to the site ESD program in Clearwater, Florida.  Throughout his career, Dave has held various positions in Electronics Test, Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering, and Quality Management. Dave is a life member of the ESD Association.  He has been an iNARTE Certified Electrostatic Discharge Engineer since 1995 and an ESDA Certified Program Manager since 2007.  He is a senior member of both the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ).  He is also ASQ certified in both Quality Engineering and Quality Auditing. Dave has a B.S.E. degree in Engineering from the University of South Florida.

 

David E. Swenson retired in 2003 after 35 years of service from 3M.  While at 3M he had responsibility for new packaging material development and application, training of 3M personnel worldwide and providing application assistance to users of static control products globally with particular emphasis on Asia Pacific and Japan.  Dave and his wife Geri established a new company, Affinity Static Control Consulting, L.L.C .in 2003. Dave has been a member of the ESD Association since 1984 and has served in many capacities including 1997 Symposium General Chair and president of the Association in 1998 and 1999 and again in 2008 and 2009.  He was re-elected to the Board of Directors for a 5th term from 2014 to 2016 and is currently appointed to the Board to assist with technical inquiries. Dave was presented with the highest award of the ESD Association, the “Outstanding Contributions Award” in 2002, the Standards Committee “Joel P. Weidendorf Memorial Award” in 2004, the Association “Edward G. Weggeland” Memorial Award in 2014 and the Symposium Committee’s, David Barber, Sr. Memorial award in 2018.  He is a member of the Standards Committee serving several Working Groups and the ANSI/ESD S20.20 Standard Task Team.   Dave also serves as Treasurer and Information Liaison of the Texas Chapter of the ESD Association; he is a member of the Electrostatic Society of America, IMAPS, the UK Institute of Physics and is a US Expert to IEC TC101, Electrostatics.

 

John graduated from University of Buffalo with a BS in Electrical Engineer and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University. John was hired by IBM where he worked for 46 years. As part of his role, John was the Subject Matter Expert in ESD control for IBM. This included developing and implementing ESD control processes at all the IBM manufacturing sites as well as assessing IBM’s suppliers for ESD control. The processes included wafer fab to large servers with all the processes required in between.
John has been a part of the ESD Association for over 30 years. He is currently chair of Working Group 20 which is responsible for ANSI/ESD S20.20, Development of an Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. John is also a member of various other standards working groups. He is also a founding member of the Technical Advisory Support Committee (TAS) which oversees all the ESD Association standards.
John is the chair of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee 101 on electrostatics. John is also the project leader for IEC 61340-5-1 – Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. Before becoming the chair, John was the chief delegate for the United States.
John’s accomplishments:
• Several patents published
• Certified ESD Program Manager
• Certified iNarte ESD Engineer
• Reliability Center of Japan – Chief ESD Coordinator
• Received Outstanding Contribution Award (ESD Association)
• Received Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (IBM)
• Receive 1906 Award (IEC)

 

Matt Strickland is currently employed at the Boeing Company in Huntsville Alabama and serves as the ESD Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) and for the Boeing Manufacturing plant in Huntsville AL. Previous to his current role at Boeing, Matt was employed at L3Harris Technologies, San Diego CA from 1999 – 2019 and served as the site ESD program coordinator and L3 Corporate ESD SME from 2007 to 2019. Matt is a Certified ESD Control Program Manager and provides technical resources in the continuous review of the ESD Control program to include training, program review and revision and onsite ESD problem solving. Matt has been a member of the EOS/ESD Association since 2007 and an active volunteer within the Association for the past 7 years serving in various capacities such as a Board of Directors member, Standards Committee member and on various working groups and committees. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Health and Safety from Columbia Southern University.
Christopher Almeras is a Process Engineer and ESD SME for Raytheon Technologies in the Texas Electronics Packaging, Materials, and Processes Department in Dallas, Texas. He is responsible for different Circuit Card Assembly processes, along with capital acquisition as well as the ESD program for Raytheon Intelligence and Space. Christopher is a member of the ESDA Board of Directors along with several working groups. He earned his ESD Professional Program Manager Certification in 2009. Christopher authored and presented “An ESD Case Study of Defect Analysis in High-Speed Electronics Manufacturing” at the 2018 EOS/ESD Symposium.
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