Protection thyristors provide enhanced surge protection in high exposure environments

Littelfuse has introduced two series of SIDACtor protection thyristors optimised to protect equipment located in high exposure environments from severe overvoltage transients. The Pxxx0MEL 5kA Series and Pxxx0FNL 3kA Series SIDACtor protection thyristors offer enhanced reliability through multiple high energy surge events. Unlike many non-semiconductor-based high power protective products, which can experience functional degradation after only a few surge events, the two series are semiconductor-based components and will continue to offer protection through multiple surge events without functional degradation. Typical applications for include: CATV amplifiers; telecom base station equipment; cell towers; UPS-AC high-power distribution grids; automotive battery charging systems; solar power system DC/AC inverters; and uninterruptible battery backup systems. “The Pxxx0MEL 5kA Series and Pxxx0FNL 3kA Series SIDACtor protection thyristors offer on-state voltage values that are much lower than the arc voltage of a traditional gas discharge tube. This low on-state voltage means they can handle much higher surge currents,” said Jack Tung, global product marketing manager at Littelfuse. “They also offer a much lower voltage threshold than the clamping voltage of a metal oxide varistor, and can be used in series with clamping devices such as varistors or TVS didoes for protecting AC power input lines.”