Characterization of nonlinear protection devices against very steep transient interferences

Steep transient interferences are a serious threat for today´s sophisticated electronic devices. The increased density of transistors in integrated circuits and the coincident decrease of operating voltages makes information technology equipment, medical and automotive devices vulnerable to electromagnetic transients by radiated or conducted means. Transmission lines may be protected against induced overvoltages by nonlinear protection circuits consisting of different stages with fast electronic components. For rise times of the transients to be suppressed smaller than 10 ns the solution of this problem is complex and high demands have to be made on the measurement set-up