TECH

BRIEF
General Purpose
ESD Protection
Background automotive load dump or other
Electronic systems are sensitive to harsh events. The EFT can be intro-
both external and internal sources duced via the power supply or
of overvoltage transients. This can inductively coupled onto a signal
be in the form of external Electro- line. Regardless of the method of
Static Discharge (ESD) or internally introduction, the results may be soft
generated Electrical Fast Transients or hard failures similar to ESD fail-
(EFT). The purpose of this applica- ures.
tion brief is to detail “General
Purpose” transient protection with
signal bandwidth less than 125 Mbps. The Solution
In order to provide the IC with
protection against ESD and EFT
The Problem transients, the use of suppression
Externally generated ESD pulses are products is recommended. The
introduced into the I/O port and suppressors are installed between
travel through the connector onto the signal line and the power supply
system board. Once on the board, or chassis ground (parallel connec-
they will propagate down the signal tion) to shunt the transient from the
lines toward the integrated circuits signal line to AC ground.
(IC). Most ICs are designed with Since this technical brief is tailored
2,000V of internal ESD protection. to general purpose transient protec-
However it is not uncommon to tion we will discuss several examples
measure ESD transients in relating to signals less than 125 Mbps.
consumer environments over
8,000V. Without sufficient protec- Examples of products which can
tion, the sensitive ICs can experience benefit from general purpose tran-
“soft failures” or corrupted data. In sient protection:
addition, the IC could be perma-
nently damaged, rendering the • Field programmable systems
whole system inoperable. • Remote peripherals (data logger,
security scanners, printers)
Internally generated EFT pulses are • Industrial controls (process moni-
created by the electronic system. tor, motor control)
Sources include switching high • Medical electronics
current loads (such as pump lasers), • Industrial computers
Examples
Figure 1 shows the SP720 providing A/D Microprocessor
V+
Converter SP720
EFT protection in a system
comprised of an Analog-to-Digital
converter and microprocessor. The Analog
microprocessor block could easily Input

be replaced by a dedicated Digital

Signal Processor (DSP). In a harsh
1 of 14
industrial or electrically noisy envi- Diode
ronment, transients may be coupled Pairs

onto the data bus to either corrupt V-

or damage the system. The SP720 Figure 1. Protecting a data bus from EFT with the SP720
is an array of 14 low capacitance
(3pF) diode pairs that “steers” the
transient voltage into the positive or
negative power supply. The SP720 I/O Handheld
shown in figure 1 has an expanded Port Controller
view of a single diode pair. I/O1
I/O2
Outside World

I/O3
Figure 2 is an example of very low
leakage protection of an I/O port .
Handheld products and other
battery operated equipment are (3) PGB0010402
sensitive to any leakage current to Signal
lengthen usage time between GND
Shield Signal
recharges or battery replacement. Ground
Ground
The figure shows a possible 3 chan-
Figure 2. Low leakage port protection with PulseGuard® suppressors
nel application with 3 PulseGuard®
suppressor devices providing shunt
protection for ESD transients. With
less than 1 nA of leakage current,
during data transmission, the
PulseGuard device offers the very JTAG JTAG
least amount of leakage. Port SP0506CAx Controller
VCC

TCK
Figure 3 consists of a SP0506CAx
Outside World

TMS
providing ESD/EFT protection of a
TDI
standard JTAG interface. In addition
TDO
to low capacitance steering diodes
for the signal lines, the device also TRST

has an integrated TVS avalanche GND

diode for power supply protection.

Figure 3. JTAG interface protection with integrated Vcc clamp

Littelfuse, Inc.
800 E. Northwest Highway
Des Plaines, IL 60016
(847) 824-1188
www.littelfuse.com/esd

Specifications, descriptions and illustrative material in this literature are as accurate as known at time of publication, but are
subject to change without notice. Littelfuse is a registered trademark of Littelfuse Incorporated.

EC634 Copyright © 2001 Littelfuse, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. JANUARY 2002