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Boulder, CO (October 2024) - This experiment explored how a Transient Voltage Suppressors (TVS) can be used to protect against high voltage spikes. For example, there is the possibility of an ESD passing through a USB port and damaging the USB hub. A TVS uses an array of diodes to limit the voltage to a specified range. For this experiment the SRV05-4 was used. It provides suppression for 4 lines with a breakdown voltage of 6V. This means the voltage will be limited to, at most, 6V.
Under normal operation, the diodes that make up the TVS remain in a non-conductive state and do not allow current to flow. If there is a voltage spike above the Zener diode’s breakdown voltage, current is able to flow across the TVS which suppresses the voltage spike on the data lines and protects any sensitive components attached to them. Figure 1 shows the circuit for the TVS breakout board. The board is powered with 5V and has a 20Vpp, 1kHz sinusoid signal applied to the IO pin. The 10X probe measures the signal on IO pin. Figure 2 shows the signal is suppressed outside of the -0.7 to 6.1V range and retains the shape of the sinusoid within the range.
Figure 1: TVS circuit used to measure the 20Vpp, 1kHz sinusoid signal.
Figure 2 Signal on the IO-1 pin of the TVS with a 20Vpp, 1kHz sinusoid signal applied. The TVS suppresses the voltage on the data line to a range between -0.7 and 6.1V.
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