New Tech Tuesdays: Electrical and Thermal Surge Protection of Power Systems

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Imagine you have been working diligently on a marketing campaign presentation for weeks and have saved all your slides, documents, and spreadsheets to your portable Solid-State Drive (SSD). You get ready to start your presentation, plug in your SSD, and realize that your laptop fails to recognize it. The initial reaction is panic, and you quickly unplug and replug the drive, but nothing changes. Your laptop still does not recognize the drive. The cause for this catastrophic event (from your perspective) could be many, one of which could be damage to the SSD due to an over-current or over-voltage event. The result is that you have now lost all your hard work and valuable data and information due to potentially inadequate circuit protection.

Circuit protection refers to the use of devices or systems to protect electrical circuits and equipment from damage due to over-current, over-voltage, or other abnormal electrical or thermal conditions. These circuit protection devices include fuses, circuit breakers, electrostatic discharge (ESD) and surge suppressors, TVS diodes, thermal cutoffs, thermistors, thyristors, varistors, and other devices designed to open or interrupt the circuit in the event of a power overload.

Circuit protection is important for many reasons, but safety is the most important. Circuit protection helps prevent electrical fires and other hazards that can result from electrical faults. Without proper circuit protection, electrical faults can also cause extensive damage to equipment and facilities, resulting in costly repairs and downtime. When implemented correctly, circuit protection devices like those mentioned ensure the reliability of electrical circuits, devices, or systems and prevent premature failures due to overloads, short circuits, input voltage surges, and excessive inrush currents.

In this week's New Tech Tuesday, we will explore the critical role eFuse Protection ICs from Littelfuse play in providing robust over-voltage, over-current, and over-temperature protection to downstream circuits.

The Littelfuse LS1205ExD33 Protection eFuse ICs are integrated load switches that provide circuit protection when powering up a system. These devices have a wide input voltage range from 2.7V to 18V, require very few external components, and offer multiple protection modes. Littelfuse’s eFuse ICs are a robust defense against overloads, short circuits, input voltage surges, and excessive inrush currents. A programmable soft-start controls the slew rate of the output voltage to limit the inrush current during plug-in. The LS1205ExD33 eFuse ICs integrate a temperature sensor for thermal shutdown protection and auto recovery. These circuit protection devices are available in a low profile, 10 leads, DFN 3mm x 3mm package.

Circuit protection is a crucial aspect of electrical circuit design. Design engineers employ devices such as Littelfuse LS1205ExD33 eFuse ICs to safeguard equipment and facilities from electrical faults, which can result in costly repairs and downtime.