The bus terminals of the SN65HVD888 transceiver family possess on-chip ESD protection against ±16kV HBM and ±12kV IEC61000-4-2 contact discharge. The International Electrotechnical Commision (IEC) ESD test is far more severe than the HBM ESD test. The 50% higher charge capacitance, C_S, and 78% lower discharge resistance, R_D of the IEC model produce significantly higher discharge currents than the HBM model.

As stated in the IEC 61000-4-2 standard, contact discharge is the preferred transient protection test method. Although IEC air-gap testing is less repeatable than contact testing, air discharge protection levels are inferred from the contact discharge test results.

The on-chip implementation of IEC ESD protection significantly increases the robustness of equipment. Common discharge events occur because of human contact with connectors and cables. Designers may choose to implement protection against longer duration transients, typically referred to as surge transients. Figure 6-9 suggests two circuit designs providing protection against short and long duration surge transients, in addition to ESD and Electrical Fast Transients (EFT) transients. Table 8-2 lists the bill of materials for the external protection devices.

EFTs are generally caused by relay-contact bounce or the interruption of inductive loads. Surge transients often result from lightning strikes (direct strike or an indirect strike which induce voltages and currents), or the switching of power systems, including load changes and short circuits switching. These transients are often encountered in industrial environments, such as factory automation and power-grid systems.

Figure 8-6 compares the pulse-power of the EFT and surge transients with the power caused by an IEC ESD transient. In the diagram on the left of Figure 8-6, the tiny blue blip in the bottom left corner represents the power of a 10kV ESD transient, which already dwarfs against the significantly higher EFT power spike, and certainly dwarfs against the 500V surge transient. This type of transient power is well representative of factory environments in industrial and process automation. The diagram on the fright of Figure 8-6 compares the enormous power of a 6kV surge transient, most likely occurring in e-metering applications of power generating and power grid systems, with the aforementioned 500V surge transient.

In the case of surge transients, high-energy content is signified by long pulse duration and slow decaying pulse power

The electrical energy of a transient that is dumped into the internal protection cells of the transceiver is converted into thermal energy. This thermal energy heats the protection cells and literally destroys them, thus destroying the transceiver. Figure 8-7 shows the large differences in transient energies for single ESD, EFT, and surge transients as well as for an EFT pulse train, commonly applied during compliance testing.

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The left circuit shown in Figure 8-8 provides surge protection of ≥ 500V transients, while the right protection circuits can withstand surge transients of 5kV.