AVX reduces leakage current, boosts voltage rating of ultraguard multilayer ceramic varistor series

The UltraGuard Series offers many electrical advantages over zener diodes, including better repetitive strike capability, higher inrush current capability, faster turn-on-time, and inherent EMI/RFI attenuation, all in a significantly smaller footprint, saving important board space. The robust UltraGuard Series also features multistrike capabilities and will survive 1000 strikes at 15kV contact ESD.

“Designed for applications where low power consumption is a primary concern, the UltraGuard Series offers the lowest leakage current, highest rated voltage, and the fastest ESD response time than any other product on the market,” said Sonja Brown, Global Circuit Protection Product Manager at AVX.

The UltraGuard Series multilayer ceramic varistor is ideal for transient protection applications where extended battery life is required, including “banked” or stacked LED drivers in backlit displays, fingerprint ID scanners, micro secure digital interfaces, camera modules, high clock-speed ICs, battery-operated devices, medical and instrumentation, low voltage power conversion circuits, and power supervisory chip sets. Further applications are also being found in optics such as laser diodes, laser diode drivers, and serializer/deserializer devices.

The UltraGuard Series multilayer ceramic varistor comes in discrete chips available 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 3000pF.

Pricing typically starts at $0.11 each in quantities of 10k.