AVX, Varistor, CANbus

Varistor provides enhanced protection and reduces component count

News Release from: AVX
19/01/2006

The latest surface-mountable AVX CANBus varistors replace three components typically used to protect against transient voltage spikes: two back-to-back Zener diodes and an EMC capacitor in parallel.

In addition, they also offer higher ESD protection and greater current and energy handling capabilities than diodes - as well as EMI/RFI attenuation across a wide frequency spectrum.

The CANBus varistor (a zinc-oxide based ceramic semiconductor device with non-linear voltage-current characteristics) handles peak currents of 4A (8x20µs) and displays a failure rate of less than 0.1 per billion hours.

With a working voltage of 18V (DC) and 14V (AC), devices are available in 0603, 0405 and 0612 case sizes. Maximum leakage current is 2µA and maximum capacitance (at 1MHz, 0.5Vrms) is 22pF.

The parts are available in single, dual and quad configured packages.