IEC 61000-4-2
(IEC 61000-4-2 is an international standard that defines electrostatic discharge immunity requirements of electrical and electronic products, devices, components and systems)
Latest version of IEC 61000-4-2 is Edition 2.0 (IEC 61000-4-2:2008). It is published by IEC on 09 December 2008. Electrostatic Discharge immunity test standard for electrical and elctronic products. It is an EMC test standard. You will find most of the essential details of this ESD standard on this page. Tests, test setup requirements and more…
Latest version of IEC 61000-4-2 is Edition 2.0 which list the requirements of electrostatic discharge (ESD) testing. Two types of ESD testing is defined: Contact Discharge (CD) and Air Discharge (AD). Contact Discharge is applied to EUT’s conductive parts with a direct touch of the ESD generator. Air Discharge is applied to EUT’s non-conductive parts which an end-user can reach.
About IEC 61000-4-2
IEC 61000-4-2 is an international standard relates to the immunity requirements and test methods for electrical and electronic equipment subjected to static electricity discharges, from operators directly, and from personnel to adjacent objects. It additionally defines ranges of test levels which relate to different environmental and installation conditions and establishes test procedures. The object of this standard is to establish a common and reproducible basis for evaluating the performance of electrical and electronic equipment when subjected to electrostatic discharges. In addition, it includes electrostatic discharges which may occur from personnel to objects near vital equipment.
Title of IEC 61000-4-2 is Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 4-2: Testing and measurement techniques – Electrostatic discharge immunity test
IEC 61000-4-2 is published by IEC and recent version is applied for product compliance. All versions are listed here:
| Publication | Edition | Publication Date |
| IEC 61000-4-2:2008 | 2.0 | 09 December 2008 |
| IEC 61000-4-2:2023 | 3.0 | 27 December 2023 (Forecast publication date) |
Current version of IEC 61000-4-2 is Edition 2.0.
New version of IEC 61000-4-2 is coming soon. It is expected to be published on 27 December 2023. IEC 61000-4-2:2023 (Edition 3.0) is still under development by TC 77 committee of IEC. SC 77B
High frequency phenomena subcommittee of IEC TC 77 is still working on it.
Test Levels
IEC 61000-4-2 lists the test levels on a table as shown below:
| Level | Test Voltage | |
| Contact Discharge | Air Discharge | |
| 1 | 2 kV | 2 kV |
| 2 | 4 kV | 4 kV |
| 3 | 6 kV | 8 kV |
| 4 | 8 kV | 15 kV |
| x | special | special |
| “x” can be any level, above, below or in between the others. The level shall be specified in the dedicated equipment specification. If higher voltages than those shown are specified, special test equipment may be needed. | ||
IEC 61000-4-2 does not give the requirement that which level is applied for a specific product. For this, you should follow a product-specific EMC standard. For instance CISPR 35 requires 4kV contact discharge test level and 8kV air discharge test level if the EUT is a multimedia equipment.
IEC 61000-4-2 will be updated soon
IEC 61000-4-2 (Edition 3.0) is expected to be published at the end of 2023. IEC is still working on it and draft version of Edition 3.0 is still under development. IEC committee members are still discussing on the changes. Some essential changes, like adding calibration requirement for Air Discharge method, might be published on this new edition. If you want to join any of IEC standard development committees, contact your national standard institute.
Comparison between IEC 61000-4-2:2008 (Edition 2.0) and IEC 61000-4-2:2023 (Edition 3.0)
The upcoming changes on new edition of IEC 61000-4-2 is listed below. Since the new edition is not published yet, these changes may not be on final version of the standard.
- A calibration requirement for ESD generators with air discharge electrodes will be added
- A test method for wall mounted equipment and wearable devices will be added
- An informative annex for wearable devices will be added
- An informative annex for improvement of how to select test points and give guidance on how to specify the number of pulses for direct contact discharges will be added
- The current calibration procedure will be improved
- The measurement uncertainty considerations with examples of uncertainty budgets will be improved
Since the IEC 61000-4-2:2023 is still draft and not published yet, details of changes are not available at the moment. These six main changes will be reviewed by us later on, when the final version of IEC 61000-4-2:2023 (Edition 3.0) is published.
As mentioned above, the most essentail change seems to be upcoming calibration requirement of ESD guns with air discharge tips. If you are performing ESD tests, prepare for these changes.
IEC 61000-4-2 Services and Test Systems
IEC 61000-4-2 Training Services
IEC 61000-4-2 Testing Services
IEC 61000-4-2 Calibration Services
IEC 61000-4-2 Test Systems (ESD generator to test table…)
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