Methods and systems for detecting ESD events in cabled devices

An audit device, comprising:

• a printed circuit board (PCB);
• at least one test element coupled to the PCB, wherein the at least one test element is a resistor or a resistance-inductance-capacitance (RLC) circuit having an equivalent circuit value to a device that is normally connected to a cable and for which electrostatic discharge (ESD), electrostatic overstress (EOS), and/or cable discharge event (CDE) characteristics are desired to be determined, and wherein the equivalent circuit value is selected from a group consisting of:
• inductance, capacitance, resistance, and impedance;
• a connector configured to couple the at least one test element to leads of the cable;
• a probe for detecting voltage across and/or current through the at least one test element;
• and
• a microprocessor or an oscilloscope coupled to the probe for collecting data from the probe,
• wherein the data collected from the probe includes data selected from the group consisting of:
• signal pulse waveform during a time period, signal magnitude, signal pulse width, polarity, and frequency of events,
• wherein one test element is coupled to a group of leads of the connector, wherein all positive polarity leads of the group of leads are coupled together on the PCB, and
• wherein all negative polarity leads of the group of leads are coupled together on the PCB, such that the at least one test element is coupled across the positive and the negative polarity leads of the group of leads of the connector, and
• wherein the at least one test element is coupled across at least two pairs of leads of the cable when the cable is coupled to the connector;
• and
• wherein the at least one test element is tunable such that the at least one test element is capable of matching the equivalent circuit value in a predetermined frequency range.