Cabin electronic equipment can be effected by electrostatic discharge due to environmental and installation conditions, such as nonconductive carpets, arm rests, etc., which exist in all locations within the aircraft. For ESD testing, different Human Body Models, such as the MIL-STD-883 and the DO-160D (comparable to IEC 1000-4-2) were applied to the passenger entertainment systems and reproduced the same system failures observed by different customers.
Comparison of the models showed that only the contact discharge with a modified network of the DO-160D standard is the appropriate test method to recreate the problems observed on current equipment and to obtain reproducible test results. Therefore, it is recommended that section 25 of the DO-160D for cabin electronic equipment be modified.