Surge & ESD Circuit Protection

With the fast growing of the science technology, our life has already deeply occupied by certain electrical products. We also highly desire on the portable and tiny products which drive the highest density, smallest size and complicated Integrated Circuit is developed and get huge growth. In the other hand, the global-warming issues also caused people pay more attentions on reducing the working voltage and operating current of integrated circuits.
As a result, integrated circuits are becoming more sensitive to the sudden transition of voltage and current, which is possible, caused the mal-function of products, even damaged or breaking out of fire.

There are 2 kinds sudden transition of voltage and current exists in the nature world, one is ESD (Electrostatic Discharge), and the other is Surge:

ESD
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden flow of electricity between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an electrical short or dielectric breakdown. ESD can cause a range of harmful effects of importance in industry, including gas; fuel vapor and coal dust explosions, as well as failure of solid state electronics components such as integrated circuits. These can suffer permanent damage when subjected to high voltages. Electronics manufacturers therefore establish electrostatic protective areas free of static

Surge
Surge is a phenomenon in nature world. Often generated from a Lightning, which is a sudden electrostatic discharging occurs typically during a thunderstorm. This discharge occurs between electrically charged regions of a cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. Such an energy discharge may caused the damage of the objects which be involved in the discharge path of the lightning. The surge protection provided a method to prevent electrical devices from the damage of the surge energy attracted into inside of the devices.

The completion of the ESD or Surge protection is highly related to the life cycle of the electrical device. I/O interface becomes the energy conducting entry gate. Providing the complete protecting scheme for ESD and Surge is very important when electrical devices be mass delivered to users.