Electrostatic discharge (ESD) phenomena have been known to mankind since the Greek
Empire when Thales of Miletus, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, noticed the attraction of
strands of hay to amber, leading to the coining of the word ‘‘electron.’’ In the 17th century,
Gilbert and Cabeo addressed the attractive and repulsive nature of electricity. In the 18th
century, a rapid increase of interest occurred for scientists in the understanding of electrical
physics—Gray, du Fay, Nollet, Musschenbroeck, Franklin, Watson, Aepinus, Canton,
