Saturation Attenuator for TVS Devices

Abstract

One very important issue with TVS clamps is their ability to limit the voltage below the level that can damage a state of the art SOC I/O which can fail at voltages as low as 3.5V. Since lowering the shunt resistance of the TVS to acceptable levels is very difficult, another option is to introduce an attenuation resistor between the TVS and I/O. This paper will look at the saturation resistor as a means to protect low level I/Os. Also, failure models of I/Os with be developed