Effect of lead length on the response of ESD protection devices

One method of protecting electronic components from the effects of ESD is to shunt the ESD current to ground. The response of the protection devices can be affected, however, by parasitic components in the component structure, as well as board parasitics such as the inductance of the traces and connectors to which the protective device is connected to. The effect of component lead length is investigated in this work for four components: a 100-/spl Omega/ film resistor, a 33-V MOV, and two unidirectional TVS diodes. Up to 15.6 dB additional attenuation is provided by shortening the leads of the protection device.