Transient voltage suppressors—technologies and characteristics

Transient voltage suppressors (TVS) are widely used for electrostatic discharge (ESD) and surge protection of electronic devices. Especially the usage of mobile devices for wireless communications requires extremely high production quantities in the range of multi-billion pieces of TVS per year. This article gives an introduction to the key performance parameters of different TVS technologies with low parasitic capacitance in the picofarad and sub-picofarad range, such as gas discharge tubes (GDT), polymer voltage suppressors (PVS), multi-layer varistors (MLV) and silicon TVS.