List-Post: [email protected] Date: 20-Feb-02 13:38:27 MsgID: OUTBOX MgTo: Gabi Hoffknecht >INTERNET:[email protected] Subj: Re: Using PCB traces as transient voltage suppressor
Hi, Gabi, I have a bad feeling about spark gaps on a board. There may be conductive material left on the board's surface after they fire, and if there's power across the traces, this can lead to unfortunate consequences. A few years ago, I had a current limited power source set a board on fire in my hand! (Better there, in a lab, than in a basement.) I started in EMC in computers, where no one worried about this stuff. Having been in the telecomm industry a few years, my experience is, we don't like high-voltage; we use SIDACTOR's at 70 to 350 volts, not the thousand or so volts a spark gap would take to fire. Cortland ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
