Many ESD standards such as the Human Body Model (HBM), Machine Model (MM), Charged Device Model (CDM),and IEC 61000-4-2 have been developed to test for robustness and ensure ESD protection. Unfortunately, these standards are often misunderstood and sometimes used interchangeably, which can result in tested, “protected”systems that later fail in the consumer’s hands. To ensure better product reliability, it is critical that today’s design engineer understand the significant differences between manufacturing environment and system end user environment ESD testing.