aluminum foil works as anti-static bag?

[ignorus]

I am running low on anti static bags and was wondering if aluminum foil is a valid substitute (gives same protection) ? I would like to check to make sure before using it

Thanks

 

[Nullity]

aluminum conducts electricity...the static charge will just conduct right through the aluminum foil.

 

[ignorus]

hmm heard from someone that it would work as a static bag, guess they were wrong then or maybe they were just pulling my leg

 

[paruhd0x]

They were pulling your leg.

 

[borealiss]

actually, aluminum foil should work fine. the way it works is that it disperses the charge over a larger area rather than having a discharge from your body concentrate on a part of the pcb. i've used it hundreds of times, and have seen other people use it without incident. the first time i heard about it was from asus' tech support since i was low on anti-static bags.

 

[LordEdmond]

DO NOT USE FOIL as anti static for a mobo unless you remove the battery first

the foil will short it out may cause a fire and / or dammage

DO NOT DO IT

It is fine for any other boards memchips that do not have a battery on board

 

[gcliv]

<< the foil will short it out may cause a fire and / or dammage >>



I get the feeling someone learned the hard way...hehehehe

 

[LordEdmond]

Nope it's just being an Elect Tech for 35 years
haveing built my first PC based on a Zilog Z80 8 bit cpu this did have a disk drive 100k cap
took 4 years and if my memory is correct some 50,000 soldered joints but it worked fine still have a few bits lying around

just a point about static
I attended a lecture on the subject given by reseacher in a large radar manufacturer
we were all seated and he used a static detector we all carried a 7-10kv charge just sitting he then asked one person to shuffle their feet the charge went up to 30+kv

so gentlemen PLEASE use anti static matts and wrist straps both properly grounded with high resistance leads to a proper ground. the lead must be greater that 2 M ohms to leak away the charge and for your personal safety ( if you conntact any mains 110vac/220vac the last thing you want is to be tied down to earth )

 

[Aruba]

I would like to add one thing to LordEmonds accurate reasons NOT to use aluminum foil.

Video boards, sound boards, NIC's, modems all have electrolytic capacitors on them. These can, and do, store a charge. If you use aluminum foil it is possible to discharge any remaining voltage in the caps and send it to a voltage/static sensitive device on the board.

Don't use foil for anything but descrete components.

 

[Noriaki]

Yeah watch those caps...Al Foil can work...but be careful when using it...

 

[Bignate603]

i'll juststick with my anti static bags, thank you...

 

[Oyeve]

hehehe. I remember my grandmother wrapped her spare hearing aid batteries in aluminum and put it in her coat pocket, a half hour later they blew up and scared the crap outta her!

 

[ALstonLoong]

wow interesting Oyeve !

 

[pm]

Aside from the issues mentioned above, foil works fine as long as you are certain you get every connection covered with foil. So if you have a CPU, if you wrap it in foil such that every pin is connected together by foil, it will protect completely against static. If you can't get every connection, then it's best not to try and to use an anti-static instead.

 

[MichaelD]

Oyveye,

ROFLMAO! I'm sorry dude, but that is FUNNY! My Aunt wraps everything in aluminum foil. Leftovers, cookies, bread, the tv remote, you name it. I laughed my *ss off when I pictured something blowing up in her sweater pocket.

I wouldn't use aluminum foil as an anti-static anything. It's METAL! HELLO! Mr. Lord Edmond (I think that's his name) gave us an excellent post. It's very possible to fry you components just with the static electricity you carry in your body. I've never used a wrist strap before, but I try to keep in constant contact with the powersupply/case while working inside. I've never had a problem.

I think (MHO) that the #1 reason for not wrapping any components in AF is what Noriaki has already said; capacitors store electricity. If the solder points on the underside of the board contact the foil, which they probably will if you wrap it around the board, the caps can discharge. At best, it'll make a nice snapping sound and scare you, at worst you will fry your board. This is the same reason why we used standoffs to mount a motherboard in a case! I think those of you that have used AF to wrap your stuff in have just been plain lucky so far. My two centavos. Thanks.

 

[LordEdmond]

its Lord Edmond Blackadder

thanks for the compliment

 

[pm]

<< I think those of you that have used AF to wrap your stuff in have just been plain lucky so far. >>



We have been using aluminum foil - it looks a lot like the stuff you get in the store except that it's not shiny on one side - at Intel to protect CPU's against static when we put them in FIB and E-beam machines (in which you are purposely bombarding the chip with high voltages) and for generally carrying them around between labs. I've never heard of anyone at Intel having a problem with this method, and certainly no one has ever said to me &quot;Patrick, you are carrying a prototype of our latest chip wrapped in AF - are you crazy?&quot;

The concern with static is gate breakdown creating a low-resistance path due to high voltages being present between the gate and the source/drain/substrate. If you tie every pin on the chip together using aluminum foil, then it is pretty much impossible to have a high voltage across a gate since every gate on the chip will be connected to a source/drain connection (since gates normally can't source current and thus are never connected together since this would be pointless - basically my point is that there should be no floating gate nodes on a chip if you tied VDD/GND and every signal coming on or off chip together).

On a card or a motherboard, it's much harder to make sure you have tied every last silicon pin together, so I don't recommend doing this with cards. But it's fine for CPU's and other discrete components.