New Industry Products

Bourns Announces New Low Capacitance TISP Surge Protectors Optimized For ADSL & VDSL Applications

February 01, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

Bourns, Inc. announced the availability of a new family of low capacitance surge protectors designed to protect ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+, VDSL and VDSL2 ports in modems or telephone exchanges. Designated the TISP4CO15L1N, TISP4CO20L1N and TISP4C025L1N, Bourns’ new family of surge protectors have a small footprint and are designed to reduce line failure and help to increase xDSL line reach to customers with a low capacitance of 9pF and a feed-through package that is designed to provide the lowest possible protection voltage. This new family of Thyristor Surge Protection Devices (TSPD) is based on Bourns TISP® overvoltage protection technology.

"Bourns’ new family of TISP surge protectors is a suitable solution for modems or telephone exchange ports due to its small size, feed-through package and ultra low capacitance," said Koenraad Rutgers, Technical Marketing Manager at Bourns. "We already have design wins from our OEM customers based on our product performance that provide solutions to help reduce line failures and maximize xDSL line reach."

Bourns’ new family of surge protector products is designed to protect xDSL line-driver interfaces at both ends of the line from overvoltages from ac power system or lightning-flash disturbances. These symmetrical protectors are two-terminal thyristor-crowbar devices and can be used to protect between conductors, or a pair of devices can be deployed to protect from line to ground. When placed between the xDSL line driver IC and the transformer, this protector will clamp and switch into a low-impedance state, safely diverting the energy transferred by the xDSL coupling transformer. The low capacitance design makes these devices an optimal choice for designs from ADSL all the way up to 30 MHz VDSL2. The alternative to TISP surge protectors had previously been simple steering diodes which allow energy to reach the protected line drivers, potentially resulting in line damage.

Bourns’ TISP4CO15L1N, TISP4CO20L1N and TISP4C025L1N surge protectors are available now. As a pricing reference, the TISP4 surge protector products are offered at $0.20 in 1 million-unit quantities through distribution.