Rome, NY -- The ESD Association has scheduled two program manager tutorials for March 28 in Texas, as well as an ESD educational program March 9-10 in the Philippines. 
 

The program in the Philippines provides information on ESD fundamentals, ESD problems and causes, in-plant verification requirements, audit procedures, ESD measurement methods, methods for designing ESD control programs and methods for assessing ESD processes for conformance to ANSI/ESD S20.20. 
 

Scheduled courses include S20.20 ESD Program Development and Assessment, ESD Auditing & Evaluation Measurements, Packaging Principles for the Program Manager, and Standards Basics for EPA. They are among the required courses for obtaining ESD Program Manager Certification.
 

Courses will be taught by Ron Gibson, Celestica International; John Kinnear, IBM Corp.; and Stephen A. Halperin, Stephen A. Halperin & Assoc./Prostat Corp. 
 

The March 28 half-day tutorials will be held at the 3M Innovation Center in Austin, TX. The courses cover Cleanroom Considerations for the Program Manager and Air Ionization: Issues and Answers. 
 

Topics covered in the cleanroom tutorial include: airborne particle classification standards, cleanroom compliance monitoring test methodologies, electrostatic attraction relation to airborne and surface contamination, ESD concerns, and cleanroom static charge generation challenges and control methodologies. The instructor is Christopher Long, a senior engineer at IBM Microelectronics.

The air ionization course will examine problems caused by static charges, review common methods for generation and control of static charge, illustrate the importance of ionizers in a static control program through demonstrations, explain the major types of ionizers and the varying environments, discuss electrical and performance test methods, demonstrate ionization measurements using the Ionization Standard, and present installation, safety, maintenance and contamination issues. The instructor is Arnold Steinman, CTO for Ion Systems Inc. 
 

This seminar is co-sponsored by the Texas Chapter of the ESD Association and is a requirement for ESD Certified Professional-Device/Design certification. 
 

For more information, visit: esda.org/upcomingcourses.html.