TVS ESD and Surge Protection Hub

Use the TVS ESD and Surge Protection Hub to choose devices, check ratings, solve failures, verify alternatives, and reach the right Good-Ark technical support path.

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46 guides

Find the protection guide for the threat you are trying to manage: a supply surge, automotive transient, lightning-related event or static discharge at a connector. Then read the voltage, pulse, package and layout checks for that interface.

Understand surges, ESD and protection devices

Start here to distinguish the event, the protected circuit and the job of each protection device.

ESD Protection for Beginners: Why a Tiny Diode Saves Your Phone

The smallest part on a phone circuit board is often a protection diode, a few tenths of a millimetre across, and it exists because the connector next to it is a doorway. Anything a user touches is a place…

Good-Ark TVS Diodes in Plain Language: The Shock Absorbers of Your Circuit

A TVS diode sits on a board doing nothing for years, and then has to absorb an event that lasts a few millionths of a second. Getting it right is a matter of matching two numbers to the threat, and getting it…

How Does a Surge Protector Work? (And When It Quietly Stops Working)

The component inside a surge protector is a sacrificial one. It conducts almost nothing for years, absorbs the energy of an event when one arrives, and comes back slightly worse than before. That is the whole…

Lightning and Electronics: What the Surge Really Does to Your Board and Where the Diodes Sit

Lightning does not have to strike your building to damage the electronics inside it. A strike a mile away couples energy into the power lines, the ground, and the structures that carry it to your board through…

Lightning, Surges and Home Electronics: Where Protection Actually Sits

A direct lightning strike is rare and usually destroys things whatever you do. The far more common case is a surge induced on the wiring by a nearby strike, and that one arrives in stages — which is exactly…

Transient Voltage Suppressor: Protect Electronics From Lightning, ESD, and Switching Surges

A TVS diode clamps lightning, ESD and switching surges before they reach sensitive circuits. Learn how standoff voltage and clamping voltage are sized.

TVS vs Zener Diode: Two Similar Parts With Two Very Different Jobs

Both parts are diodes operated in reverse breakdown, both are drawn with the same symbol, and both are described in datasheets using the same three or four parameter names. The difference is what you are…

TVS vs Zener: Same Ancestry, Different Jobs

TVS vs Zener: one is rated in continuous watts, the other in pulse watts at a waveform. A 12 V rail worked example shows why they are not interchangeable.

TVS, MOV, Zener, or Plain Diode: Which Clamps Your 12 V Rail Safely

Protection components are the least exciting parts of a board and the ones most often chosen by habit. A designer reaches for a TVS because the last board had one, or a Zener because a tutorial mentioned it,…

What Is a TVS Diode? Surge Protection Explained Simply

Last updated: October 11, 2026 The short definition is easy to find and does not help much on its own: a TVS diode is a component that conducts when the voltage across it becomes too high. The useful knowledge…

What Static Electricity Really Does to Your Electronics

You feel a spark when it reaches a few thousand volts, but a semiconductor can be destroyed by a discharge you never notice — and often is. The interesting part of static damage is not the spark; it is the…

Zener vs Avalanche vs TVS for Spikes: The Clamping Family Nobody Names Correctly

The protection aisle is full of parts that clamp voltage, and the names — Zener, avalanche, TVS — are used so loosely that a beginner cannot tell what a given part will actually do. The honest distinction is…

Zener, TVS, and ESD Diodes on a DC Rail: Which Protection Belongs Where

A single DC rail can carry three different-looking diodes, and the beginner assumption that they all do the same job is the root of most misapplied protection. A Zener, a TVS, and an ESD diode on the same rail…

Read voltage and pulse ratings

Use these guides to interpret clamping behavior, pulse ratings and repetition before selecting a series.

1500W TVS Protection Diode: Reliable Surge Suppression for Power Electronics and Industrial Systems

A 1500 W TVS diode is rated in power but chosen in joules: about 1.5 J per pulse, against a load dump worth hundreds. What the class really covers.

400 W vs 600 W TVS: Sizing the Pulse Energy Absorber

The TVS’s power class is a pulse-shape statement: 400 W and 600 W are quoted at a defined waveform, and the event’s actual energy decides the right class. This guide covers the waveform conventions, the energy…

600W TVS Protection Diode: Reliable Circuit Protection for Power Electronics and Industrial Applications

A 600 W TVS diode is rated on a 10/1000 us pulse and only 350 W at 150 C junction. What the class covers, and the three rows that cause surprises.

Clamping Voltage Explained: The Datasheet Number That Decides Protection

Three voltages are printed next to each other on a protection datasheet, they are all measured in volts, and only one of them tells you whether your circuit survives. Reading them in the wrong order is the…

Pulse Energy Absorption in TVS Diodes: Joules, Waveforms, and the Thermal Reset Story

A TVS is rated in watts and joules, and the first question every protection designer asks is what those numbers actually mean. A “600 W” TVS and a “1500 W” TVS look like a power comparison, but neither number…

SMB vs SOD-123 for TVS: Package, Pulse Power, and Placement

Pulse power is a package question: the SOD-123 package protects small lines with modest energy, and the SMB carries the 600 W class with a larger body and a better heat path. This guide compares the capability…

Surge Current Ratings Explained: IFSM, Test Waves, and Real Events

IFSM—peak forward surge current—is a single-pulse rating: the part survives one large current event at a defined pulse width and starting temperature, and every repeated event ages it. This guide explains what…

Surge Protector Ratings for Electronics Buyers: Joules, Clamping Voltage, and the Fine Print

The surge protector market speaks in joule numbers, and the numbers say less than the marketing implies. A 1000-joule protector and a 5000-joule protector both promise to save your electronics, and neither the…

TVS Clamping Voltage: Setting the Standoff Margin Between Standby, Trip, and System Limits

A TVS diode protects a rail by clamping an overvoltage, and getting the protection right is a window problem: the standoff voltage must sit high enough that normal operation never trips the device, and the…

TVS Diode Selection Guide: VRWM, VBR, and Clamping Voltage

A transient voltage suppressor is selected by three voltages, in order: the stand-off voltage (VRWM) that the circuit must tolerate continuously, the breakdown voltage (VBR) where conduction starts, and the…

Unidirectional vs Bidirectional TVS: Mounting Polarities, Protection Zones, and Product Markings

The choice between a unidirectional and a bidirectional TVS is not a preference — it is decided by the protection zone the device guards. A TVS clamped line-to-ground on a rail that only ever swings positive…

What is a bidirectional surge protection diode and how does it work?

Bidirectional TVS diodes clamp in both directions. What 600 W and 130 W parts really specify, and how standoff, clamping and capacitance decide the part.

What Is a Low Clamping Voltage TVS?

A low clamping TVS is chosen by its clamping voltage at the fault current, not by breakdown voltage. What the datasheet rows mean and how the margin is checked.

What Is a Unidirectional TVS Diode? Working, Polarity and Selection

A unidirectional surge protection diode is usually a unidirectional transient voltage suppressor, or TVS diode. Across a positive DC rail, it normally blocks with limited leakage. A sufficiently positive…

Protect USB, CAN and signal interfaces

For signal lines, follow the guide for the interface and check the physical placement as well as the device choice.

ESD Protection on Boards: Why the Small IC-Side Diode Matters as Much as the Big TVS

A board can carry a large TVS at its power entry and still fail ESD tests, because the two threats are different jobs. The TVS guards the line-to-ground energy of a surge — the big pulse that comes in through…

Low Capacitance ESD Diode: Protecting High-Speed Signal Integrity in Modern Electronics

A low capacitance ESD diode keeps 3.5 pF off a high-speed line. Why 45 pF parts are wrong there, and how capacitance, clamping and IEC levels decide.

Low-Capacitance ESD Diodes: Protecting Signal Pins Without Blurring the Eye Diagram

Every ESD diode on a signal line adds capacitance to that line, and on a high-speed interface the added capacitance is not a footnote — it is a budget that directly closes the receiver’s eye. A data line…

Protecting USB Ports From Static: A Beginner’s Guide

A USB port is a hole in the enclosure with four conductors behind it, one of which is a direct connection to a power rail and two of which go straight into a high-speed receiver. That combination makes the…

Surge and ESD Testing for Power Lines: HBM, IEC 61000-4-5, and ISO 7637

The pulse tests a power line faces are not one test but a landscape: component-level ESD, system-level ESD, mains surge, and automotive transients each have a generator, a waveform, and an energy. This guide…

USB ESD Protection Diodes: Selection, Pin Mapping and PCB Layout

A USB ESD protection diode diverts a short electrostatic-discharge transient away from vulnerable circuitry while adding as little loading as practical to the normal signal. Selection depends on the protected…

USB Port ESD Protection: Where the Diode Goes on the Connector and Why the 5 V Rail Escapes

A USB port is one of the most ESD-exposed points on a product because it is touched, plugged, and unplugged constantly, bringing a charged human body or cable near the connector. The protection decision is not…

What Is a Multi Line ESD Protection Array?

A multi-line ESD array is chosen by per-line capacitance and channel count, not by package size. What three real arrays specify, and where each one belongs.

What Is an SOD-523 ESD Protection Diode?

An SOD-523 ESD protection diode is a transient voltage suppressor in the JEDEC SOD-523 (SC-79) surface-mount package, roughly 1.6 × 0.8 × 0.6 mm, that clamps electrostatic discharge and short spikes before…

What Is CAN Bus ESD Protection?

CAN bus ESD protection is a capacitance budget first: a two-line part must clamp 30 kV and still add only 25 pF per line. What the numbers decide.

Choose packages and check the installed circuit

These guides connect series and package choices to power-entry protection, layout and failure investigation.

Need help with a particular circuit?

Include the circuit position, operating conditions and the part number or marking when you contact Good-Ark technical support.