US Patent 7928753 Device and method for evaluating electrostatic discharge protection capabilities

A device and a method for evaluating ESD protection capabilities of an integrated circuit, the method includes: connecting multiple test probe to multiple integrated circuit testing points. The method is characterized by repeating the stages of: (i) charging a discharge capacitor to an ESD protection circuit triggering voltage level; (ii) connecting the discharge capacitor to the integrated circuit during a testing period such as to cause the discharge capacitor to interact with the integrated circuit; (iii) measuring at least one signal of the integrated circuit, during at least a portion of the testing period; and (iv) determining at least one ESD protection characteristic of the integrated circuit in response to the at least one signal.