by Kevin Parmenter, Chair, and James Spangler, Co-chair, PSMA Safety and Compliance Committee , How2Power Today, Dec 18 2018
Focus:
This article examines the standards that address a power supply’s ability to withstand ac power
line transients including those induced by lightning. Author James Spangler shares his research
on what standards apply and how they were developed. He then discusses the role that the EMI
filter stage plays in providing protection against power line transients and how designers can
determine whether changes or additions to this protection are required to meet the various
transient protection standards or guidelines. The article begins by tracing transient
protection guidelines from old corporate manuals (there’s interesting data here from the 70s on
transient events) and standards like UL 217 for smoke detectors up to IEC 664 and the current
IEC 60664-1. It then explains the role of each of the circuit protection elements in a power
supply’s input stage. Finally, it references a lightning surge test circuit published by one
manufacturer of offline power supply ICs.
What you’ll learn:
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