Compared with Zener diodes, what are the application advantages of ESD (TVS) protection chips?
Compared with Zener diodes, what are the application advantages of ESD (TVS) protection chips?

Solution

Compared with Zener diodes, what are the application advantages of ESD (TVS) protection chips?

The P/N junction area of ESD (TVS) devices is larger than that of Zener diodes, resulting in ESD (TVS) devices not only having stronger high-voltage tolerance, but also greatly reducing the voltage cut-off rate

. ESD (TVS) devices have a better effect on the safety protection of low operating voltage circuits of handheld devices.

Comparison of TVS and ceramic capacitors: surface mount ceramic capacitors can also be used for ESD protection, which is cheap and simple; but the high voltage withstand capacity of ceramic capacitors is weak, 5kV high voltage can make 10% of ceramic capacitors invalid; 10kV high voltage can make 60% Ceramic capacitors fail.

According to the IEC61000-4-2 standard, for the use of general handheld devices, each connector must withstand a contact impulse voltage greater than 8kV. Since ESD (TVS) can withstand a voltage of 15kV, ESD (TVS) is more suitable for handheld devices, effectively ensuring the pass rate and reliability of the final product.

Comparison of TVS and MLV: Multilayer metal oxide structure devices (MLV) can also effectively suppress instantaneous high-voltage shocks, but they have nonlinear voltage-current characteristics, and the cut-off voltage can reach 2 to 3 times the initial cut-off voltage. This makes it suitable for the protection of lines and devices that are less sensitive to voltage, such as power supply circuits.

ESD (TVS) protection chip has better voltage cut-off factor and lower capacitance, especially suitable for high-frequency and high-speed signal connectors of handheld devices.

The micro-surface packaging of ESD (TVS) chips is not only suitable for automatic assembly process, but also can integrate other functions (such as EMI and RFI filter protection), etc., which can greatly reduce device cost, optimize hardware system design, and improve PCB board-level anti-interference performance and reliability.