Withstand capability of MOV and GDT parallel combination for excessive impulse currents

For surge protections, various nonlinear components are used at stand alone or in combination. In order to understand the possibility of volume or area minimization for assembly using surge protection components, the surge withstand performance in a parallel circuit consisting of both an MOV and a GDT having lower rating is investigated. As results, even if the operation coordination in parallel combination of MOV and GDT is achieved for the first impulse application, for excessive and repetitive impulse currents, the GDT d.c. sperkover voltage (V s) drastically increased and the energy the MOV absorbed also increased. On the other hand, it was confirmed that a parallel combination of MOV and GDT could withstand current values twice the rated MOV’s specification. As conclusions of this study, it is found that the combination of MOV and GDT greatly affects the performance in surge protection.