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Gas discharge tubes expand protection family

A Raychem Circuit Protection product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 16, 2004

Raychem Circuit Protection has added a range of gas discharge tubes (GDTs) to its circuit protection family.

Raychem Circuit Protection has added a range of gas discharge tubes (GDTs) to its circuit protection family.

Raychem Circuit Protection continues to expand its circuit protection product offering in response to increased customer demand for its industry leading products.

The addition of GDTs, which are targeted for telecomms equipment and surge protection modules, as well as industrial, commercial, consumer, and automotive electronics, confirms Raychem Circuit Protection's reputation as a comprehensive circuit protection solution provider.

Raychem Circuit Protection GDTs are commonly used to help protect sensitive telecomms equipment such as power lines, communication lines, signal lines and data transmission lines from damage caused by transient surge voltages that typically result from lightning strikes and equipment switching operations.

GDTs are placed in front of, and in parallel with, the sensitive equipment and act as a high impedance component while not influencing the signal in normal operation.

However, in the event of an overvoltage surge, such as a lightning strike, the GDT switches to a low impedance state, and diverts the energy away from the sensitive equipment.

Due to their low capacitance, the GDTs also have less signal distortion than other overvoltage protection technologies.

The Raychem Circuit Protection GDTs offer a higher level of protection, compared with typical GDTs, due to their fast and accurate break-over voltage, making them suitable for applications such as MDF (main distribution frame) modules, high-datarate telecomms applications (such as ADSL and VDSL), and surge protection on power lines.

Raychem Circuit Protection GDTs, when used with Raychem Circuit Protection's PolySwitch resettable devices, SiBar devices and ROV devices (metal oxide varistors) for telecommunications and other applications, can help equipment meet the most stringent regulatory standards.