LEA-6 / NEO-6 / MAX-6 - Hardware Integration Manual
UBX-14054794 Production Information Product handling
Page 58 of 85
3.3.3 ESD handling precautions
ESD prevention is based on establishing an Electrostatic Protective Area (EPA). The EPA can be a small working
station or a large manufacturing area. The main principle of an EPA is that there are no highly charging materials
in the vicinity of ESD sensitive electronics, all conductive materials are grounded, workers are grounded, and
charge build-up on ESD sensitive electronics is prevented. International standards are used to define typical EPA
and can be obtained for example from International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) or American National
Standards Institute (ANSI).
GPS receivers are sensitive to ESD and require special precautions when handling. Particular care must be
exercised when handling patch antennas, due to the risk of electrostatic charges. In addition to standard ESD
safety practices, the following measures should be taken into account whenever handling the receiver.
Unless there is a galvanic coupling between the local GND (i.e. the
work table) and the PCB GND, the first point of contact when
handling the PCB shall always be between the local GND and PCB
GND.
Before mounting an antenna patch, connect ground of the device.
When handling the RF pin, do not come into contact with any
charged capacitors and be careful when contacting materials that
can develop charges (e.g. patch antenna ~10 pF, coax cable ~50-
80 pF/m, soldering iron, …)
To prevent electrostatic discharge through the RF input, do not
touch any exposed antenna area. If there is any risk that such
exposed antenna area is touched in non ESD protected work area,
implement proper ESD protection measures in the design.
When soldering RF connectors and patch antennas to the receiver’s
RF pin, make sure to use an ESD safe soldering iron (tip).
Failure to observe these precautions can result in severe damage to the GPS receiver!
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