This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

CC2541: ESD issue on CC2541

Part Number: CC2541

Hi, 

In ESD testing for CC2541 and CC2541-Q1, we found a phenomena:  During the ESD testing for the product with CC2541-Q1, the chip works well all the time. But the product with CC2541 will stop sending Bluetooth when the ESD voltage comes to 25kV. Waiting about 20mins, the Bluetooth signal recovers, i.e. can be scanned of the beacon. The ESD shots are applied on the plastic case of product.

Can anyone help to explain this problem? Why the industrial CC2541 need 20 minutes to recover?  What's the difference between the ESD protection design of these two chips? 

PS. the phenomenon is consistent. 

BR. Albin

  • Hi Albin,

    Are these the same product with only the IC replaced or a different products? From the the datasheet the IC pins are capable of 2KV and should be the same ESD for both the Q1 and non auto device. From what you are saying above it seems to be 2 different products.

    I would recommend that the customer do a swap between device of the 2 products and retest and see if it is following the product or the IC. I don't expect any difference in performance for ESD based on the device datasheets.

    Thanks,

    Riz

  • Hi Rizwan

    I'm the customer. We were using the same products. 3 products with CC2541 and 3 products with CC2541-Q1. The only difference is the Bluetooth IC. All the industrial CC2541 lost signal after ESD test and recovered in twenty mintutes(worst case). All the CC2541-Q1 kept sending bluetooth signal no matter how much kv. Please analyze this phenomenon. Thanks

  • Hi Wang,

    As stated the IC pins are capable of 2KV. Can you run a test starting at 2KV and increasing the ESD voltage to see when the issue starts. We are still digging in to see if there is any difference between the Q and the non-Q device, but this would be valuable information to understand.

    Thanks,

    Riz

  • Hi Rizwan,

    We started at 6KV. It was ok when beginning. Only until the ESD voltage came to 15KV, the phenomenon appeared: It took 1-2 mins to recover. As the voltage higher, the behaiver was worse until 25KV. 25KV is the highest ESD voltage according to OEM SPEC. We didn't apply voltage higher than 25KV.