TDK: EXAMPLE OF ESD COUNTERMEASURES ON ACTUAL EQUIPMENT

While smartphones, TWS, and other mobile devices are becoming smaller and more sophisticated, devices and ICs are becoming more vulnerable to electrostatic discharge (ESD), surges, and other types of immunity. These mobile devices are increasingly being hand-held, operated, and worn. Therefore, ESD countermeasures are needed more than ever, while ESD protection components are also increasingly being used to prevent ESD.

What is a Varistor?
Chip varistors are ceramic semiconductor products based mainly on zinc oxide. Chip varistors have a laminated structure, with breakdown voltage and capacitance being controlled by the number of layers and the interlayer design. It is a voltage-dependent nonlinear resistive element whose resistance decreases rapidly when a voltage above a certain value is applied.




Measuring ESD on an Actual Equipment
Experiments were conducted by mounting an LED on an actual device and checking how the LED light changes as the ESD enters, depending on whether the LED has an ESD protection component (with or without a chip varistor). The application of ESD to the device with mounted LED was performed through electrostatic immunity testing using the human body model (HBM) of IEC61000-4-2, which specifically assumes that charged electrical charges are discharged into electronic devices




Evaluation Results
In the presence of a chip varistor, the LED lit up to up to 8 kV ESD discharge. On the other hand, when an ESD protection element is not used, the LED momentarily turned off at 4 kV to 6 kV ESD discharge. Furthermore, the LED completely turned off at 7 kV ESD discharge. This result confirms that the LED is affected by ESD. Furthermore, it demonstrated that the chip varistor was capable of protecting the LED from ESD.

Product Introduction
TDK’s lineup of multilayer chip varistors is mainly for consumer electronics and automotive applications.

For consumer applications, varistors are available in sizes as small as EIA01005 (0.4 x 0.2 mm). For automotive applications, varistors for mass production come in sizes as small as EIA0402 (1.0 x 0.5 mm).

To summarize, the use of TDK's multilayer chip varistors saves space and allows a high degree of freedom in the mounting layout. In addition, multilayer chip varistors for automotive applications are available in AEC-Q200, 125°C, and 150°C versions, allowing customers to select a highly reliable and optimal product to suit their applications.