IEC 61000-4-2 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 specifies ranges of test levels that relate to different environmental and installation conditions and establishes test procedures.
The objective of IEC 61000-4-2 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 that can occur from personnel to objects near the equipment.
IEC 61000-4-2 specifies:
— ideal waveform of the discharge current,
— range of test levels,
— test equipment,
— test setup,
— test procedure,
— calibration procedure,
— measurement uncertainty.
This edition of IEC 61000-4-2 includes the following significant technical changes:
a) added a calibration requirement for ESD generators with air discharge tip,
b) added a normative annex for test setups for particular kind of equipment (see Annex I),
c) added an informative annex for wearable devices (see Annex J),
d) added an informative annex on how to select test points and give guidance on how to specify the number of pulses for direct contact discharges (see Annex E),
e) moved Clause 9 into a new informative annex (see Annex K),
f) improvement of the current calibration procedure,
g) improvement of the measurement uncertainty considerations with examples of uncertainty budgets,
h) because post-installation tests cannot be performed in a controlled environment, this test method has been moved into a new informative Annex G.
IEC 61000-4-2:2025 text has been approved in Europe as EN IEC 61000-4-2:2025 without any changes.
