ESD Safety of 2N7000 MOSFETs for Home Experimentation

[Jiggy-Ninja]

I've been thinking abut getting some MOSFETs to play around with (my classes skipped right over that particular section), specifically some http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/2N%2F2N7000.pdf" from Mouser.

However, I've read in my textbook that MOSFETs, because of their insulated gate, can be easily destroyed by static electricity. Is that true for the particular kind I've linked?

In Comm class we handled BFR84 Dual Gate MOSFETs, and they survived normal handling pretty well. It even survived getting hooked up backwards (because I interpreted the pin-out wrong) and getting quite hot a few times before I figured out how it was supposed to go in.

The datasheet for those showed a pair of Zener diodes hooking each gate to the source. This was probably how they could survive; the Zeners kept the static voltage down below 10V, so it was never enough to damage the device.

The 2N7000 have a diode shown in the datasheet, but it's from source to drain instead of gate to source. Does that diode help keep it ESD safe, or does it serve another purpose?

Would it be safe to get the 2N7000s for home experimentation, or would I need special handling precautions?

 

[Antiphon]

That's what's called a body diode. It's part of the construction of the FET so the gate is probably sensitive to ESD on this device.

Usually if a part is ESD protected it will say so on the datasheet.

 

[Dmytry]

Just buy fifty or so, the stuff's cheap as dirt. I'm going to get a lot of pn4117 's, not mosfets but jfets.
I'd guess you'll burn more by overcurrent than by esd. you can wrap a wire around all leads (short all leads) while you're soldering it, and remove afterwards, that'd protect it from whatever voltage you can have on soldering iron by capacitive coupling.

 

[Quinzio]

99% of the time you'll have no problems at at all.
Before touching the Mosfet you can ground yourself. Touching the metal chassis of your PC is enough to ground yourself.