Novx Corporation

Noux Corporation

Noel Verbiest

Steven Bernard Heymann

Lyle Dwight Nelsen

A method of controlling and monitoring voltage potential on a human body that includes the following steps: a) Connecting the human body to a &ldquo;Quasi Virtual Ground&rdquo;; b) Providing contact with the human skin via one or more silver/silver chloride electrodes; c) Continuously monitoring the triboelectric current i(t) flowing into the &ldquo;Quasi Virtual Ground&rdquo; terminal; d) Determining whether or not a person is properly wearing his/her body electrode; e) Including circuitry that immediately interrupts the path-to-ground when a dangerously large current is detected; f) Including circuitry that immediately interrupts the path-to-ground when the power supply to the workstation monitor is interrupted, either intentionally or accidentally.

Method of monitoring ESC levels and protective devices utilizing the method

An electrometer that is able to measure the potential difference of an electrostatically charged body without causing a rapid discharge of the subject charge. The electrometer has an input impedance that is in excess of 100 gigohms. The input impedance is created by an active voltage divider. The active voltage divider is a unique circuit which instead of the typical voltage divider that utilizes a passive resistive divider and an op amp in a voltage follower configuration, uses an amplifier configuration that attenuates its input signal. One result of this configuration is that the input line can then be guarded. This allows the device to be supplied with probes that are not subject to typical elements of degradation of the input signal with distance from the circuit, e.g. parasitic capacitance and bandwidth limitations. The device operates with two channels: a first channel recognizes the presence of a charged body in the proximity of the device, while the second channel measures the magnitude of the potential difference on a charged body examined by a probe. The device includes alarms that are activated when charge levels exceed a chosen level. A display tower allows a user to visually demonstrate to trainees the magnitude of ESC events.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Noel Verbiest