On the operation mode of bidirectional lightning surge protection devices

Modern telecommunication equipment has to be protected from high voltage, long period disturbances produced by lightning shocks or capacitive coupling. Power semiconductor devices are commonly used in parallel protection up to 4 kV, 150 A transient peaks. This paper analyses the operation mode of an optimised bidirectional breakover diode (BBD) and experimental results are reported from fabricated 180 V BBD devices with holding current values in the range of 150-250 mA.