Nexperia Introduces New ESD Protection Series for Type C USB

Nexperia recently announced that it has optimized its TrEOS ESD protection diode family for the Type C USB interface. The new USB3.2 standard references an optional capacitor at the Rx input, so Nexperia now offers two sets of components: one set provides extremely high surge immunity between the connector and the capacitor, and the other set of components It has an extremely low trigger voltage for placement between the capacitor and the system chip.

Nexperia's TrEOS ESD protection technology uses active silicon controlled rectifiers for extremely low capacitance (down to 0.1pF), very low clamping (dynamic resistance down to 0.1Ω) and very high surge and ESD pulse immunity The best combination (up to 20A 8/20μs for very fast data lines). The turn-on time is also very fast, about 0.5ns, and the device can withstand contact discharges of up to 30kV, exceeding the IEC 61000-4-2 standard level 4. Under the 8/20 IEC61000-4-5 standard, TrEOS applications with protection devices placed in front of capacitors are currently available for industry leading peak pulse current ratings of 9.5, 15 and 20A. The TrEOS devices used after the capacitors also have industry-leading performance with a minimum trigger voltage (Vt1) as low as 4.3V. These features also apply to Type A USB and MicroUSB interfaces.

Nexperia Product Manager Stefan Seider said: "The options offered by Type C USB and USB Power Delivery are very attractive: to ensure end users can enjoy data speeds of up to 20Gbps and charging speeds of up to 100W, Nexperia offers two TrEOS protection series. Each protection strategy around the new USB3.2 Rx capacitors can be supported to protect sensitive transceivers from possible fault conditions."

The TrEOS protection diodes are packaged in the widely used 0603 size. The DSN0603-2 (SOD962-2) package is very compact and robust, with the advantage of no package wiring, eliminating another failure mode and producing the lowest inductance for the fastest protection. This package is ideal for mobile and computing applications. Other space-saving packages are also available. Nexperia provides a comprehensive parametric USB protection search guide (click here) to help designers select the best components for their system configuration.