Electrostatic Discharge Sensor Based on Brightness Retention of Liquid Crystals

This paper reports an electrostatic discharge (ESD) liquid crystal (LC) sensor comprising four LC cells filled with LC materials of various resistivities. When an ESD strikes the sensor, the duration of resulting emission of light from the cell depends on the leakage of electrostatic charge, which is directly related to the resistivity of the LC material. Counting the number of glowing cells makes it possible to estimate the level of ESD striking the sensor. The proposed LC-ESD sensor is light, compact, and reusable, and operates without the need for bulky, expensive power supplies.