The Human Body Model has a fast rise time to a very high voltage, but the 1.5K ohm resistor limits the current to a maximum of 2.67 amperes at 4kV with a decaying RC time constant set by the 1.5K ohm resistor and the 100 pF capacitor. The type of failure represented by this model is produced by static charge build up on people handling the integrated circuits in the lab/engineering areas or in the marketing/device transfer areas. Also, in a dry, static-charge build-up environment, consumers produce this type of failure when they touch an electronic product that does not have appropriate grounding or shielding. Similar ESD damage can occur in automotive environments where a passenger with a fur coat slides into an automobile in a cold dry environment and touches a conductor to an electronic component that is not adequately protected.

Quantitative investigations in this type environment have shown electrostatic voltages as high as 30,000 Volts. Typically the "on-chip" ESD protection circuitry does not perform fast enough (or is non existent) to give adequate protection to devices that fail this test. The HBM ESD test is the primary acceptance type test utilized for device qualification in the United States.