Originally Posted by
green granite
I think static is a personal thing, I used to quite happily handle any chip, including CMOS with no adverse effects what soever but we nad a work experience lad in my dept for a couple of days and I thought a good job to give him was to burn a load of eproms that were needed urgently. But , despite standing on an anti-static mat and having both wrists manacled hes was death to any chip he touched.
I was taught that once a chip was soldered into a properly designed circuit then small amounts of static should not be harmful, obviously if you're going to attack it with a Wimshurst machine then that might be a different matter.
Like Milo I've vacced out many Machines with no detrimental effects.
Having worked in my youth with several people who've gone on to top positions in the IEEE etc, I had a fairly good schooling in the effects of static.
It's not the presence of static per se that is the problem, but the difference in static potential between you and the device you touch that causes the issue. Hence, if you 'earth' yourself to the device before starting you are far less likely to cause issue (and almost guaranteed not to if you keep yourself earthed to the device during it). Also, earthing via a plug socket is not recommended.