Low leakage transient voltage suppressors from AVX

21st February 2008

AVX

ES Admin

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UltraGuard Series ZnO based varistors from AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer of advanced passive components, exhibit very low leakage current of2 µA maximum making them ideal transient protection applications where power consumption is a primary concern.

These include high clock-speed ICs, battery-operated devices, backlit displays, medical and instrumentation applications, low voltage power conversion circuits and power supervisory chip sets. Further applications are also being found in optics such as laser diode drivers, Serializer/Deserialier devices and laser diodes.

The zinc-oxide (ZnO) based, multilayer ceramic varistors feature non-linear, bi-directional voltage-current characteristics similar to back-to-back Zener diodes and an EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) capacitor in parallel. Varistors offer many electrical advantages over zener diodes, including better repetitive strike capability, higher in rush current capability, faster turn-on-time, and inherent EMI/RFI attenuation.

Further, varistors are significantly smaller. The UG series come in discrete chips in 0402, 0603, and 0805 sizes; 2-element packages in 0405 and 0508 sizes; and 4-element 0612 packages. Low and high capacitance versions are offered ranging from 40 through to 3000 pF.