1/12

June 2004

AN588

APPLICATION NOTE

CHOOSING AN

ITAxx REQUIRES A SYSTEM APPROACH

REV. 2

INTRODUCTION

Destined for the protection of data transmission lines, each one of these components corresponds to a

particular application.

Therefore, one no longer chooses an ITAxx - type protection as he did a Transil diode. In order to accu-

rately select the correct component, one must take into account the entire system and analyse the follow-

ing points:

– Against what type of disturbances do we want protection?

– What Transil array configuration do we need (number of I/O, voltage of the line signal)?

– What type of interface circuit are we protecting, and what are the destruction limits?

Once this step is done, the only thing left to do is to define the adapted Transil array. To help the user, a

detailed description of the characteristics and the functioning mode of the ITAxx arrays is required.

The protection level of the ITAxx

The protection of electronic and computer systems against ESD and EOS disturbances is regulated by

numerous standards, such as IEC801-xxx, Mil Standard, etc. Within one standard, the protection levels

change in function of the application.

Figure 1.