A circuit protection device is provided. The circuit protection device includes an active energy absorber that is coupled between two power lines in an electrical power distribution system and is configured to selectively conduct fault current responsive to overvoltage conditions. The active energy absorber includes an overvoltage protection module that includes two thyristors that are connected in anti-parallel with one another and a varistor that is connected with the overvoltage protection module as a series circuit. The series circuit including the varistor and the overvoltage protection module is connected between the power lines.

A system includes a vehicle including a motive electrical power path; a power distribution unit including: a current protection circuit disposed in the motive electrical power path, the current protection circuit including a fuse and a contactor in a series arrangement with the fuse; a high voltage power input coupling including a first electrical interface for a high voltage power source; and a high voltage power output coupling including a second electrical interface for a motive power load, where the current protection circuit electrically couples the high voltage power input coupling to the high voltage power output coupling.

A system includes a vehicle including a motive electrical power path; a power distribution unit including: a current protection circuit disposed in the motive electrical power path, the current protection circuit including a fuse and a contactor in a series arrangement with the fuse; a high voltage power input coupling including a first electrical interface for a high voltage power source; and a high voltage power output coupling including a second electrical interface for a motive power load, where the current protection circuit electrically couples the high voltage power input coupling to the high voltage power output coupling.

A transient voltage suppression device includes at least one diode string, a power clamp device, at least one first bypass diode, and at least two second bypass diodes. The diode string is coupled between a power terminal and a common bus and coupled to an input output (I/O) port. The power clamp device is coupled between the power terminal and the common bus. The first bypass diode is coupled between the common bus and a ground terminal The second bypass diodes are coupled in series, coupled between the common bus and the ground terminal, and coupled to the first bypass diode in reverse parallel. Alternatively, the first bypass diode and the second bypass diodes are replaced with at least one bi-directional electrostatic discharge (ESD) device.

An object is to provide a DC distribution panel that, even when short-circuit current has occurred in one feeder, interrupts only the feeder where short-circuit current has occurred, and thus can continue operations of load apparatuses connected to normal feeders. This DC distribution panel includes: an input terminal including positive and negative input terminals; circuit breakers having short-circuit current interruption units connected to at least either of positive electric paths and negative electric paths respectively branched from the positive and negative input terminals; and output terminals including positive output terminals and negative output terminals of the plurality of circuit breakers. At least one of the plurality of circuit breakers includes a reverse current interruption unit for interrupting reverse current flowing through the positive electric path from the output terminal side to the input terminal side.

In one embodiment, an overvoltage protection device (100) may include a crowbar device (106), where the crowbar device (106) includes a first crowbar terminal (115), the first crowbar terminal (115) connected with a first external voltage line (102). The overvoltage protection device (100) may further include a transient voltage suppression (TVS) device (108), where the TVS device (108) includes a second TVS terminal (121), the second TVS terminal (121) connected with a second external voltage line (104). The crowbar device (106) and the TVS device (108) may be arranged in electrical series between the first crowbar terminal (115) and the second TVS terminal (121).

A dual transient surge and communication protection device, which can have less than 5 nanosecond response time and can provide communication and power transient surge protection for field instrumentation and be configured for operating under multiple communication protocols. The dual transient surge and communication protection device can have a positive power and communication terminal, a negative power and communication terminal, a grounding terminal, a first silicon avalanche diode array, a second silicon avalanche diode array, a first non-polar wire, a second non-polar wire, a grounding wire and a unit viability wire. The device provides protection from 4 milliamps to 20 milliamps of power and communication signals for field instruments.

A test device is disclosed. The test device includes an input/output (I/O) circuit configured to allow static electricity flowing between an input/output (I/O) pad and an internal circuit to be discharged to a power-supply line, a ground line, or a substrate line, a capacitor circuit configured to perform modeling of parasitic capacitance extracted from a package design, and a discharge circuit configured to allow capacitance stored in the capacitor circuit to be discharged to the substrate line.

A method for reducing a thermal load on a switching element of an electronic fuse when switching on a load, wherein (a) a switching element is activated, (b) the switching element is deactivated and (c) the switching element is re-activated after reaching a set value of a switch-off duration, where steps (b) and (c) are repeated until an output voltage reaches a value that falls below a specified difference with respect to an input voltage of an electronic fuse or an output current reaches a specified duration current, where set values of a switch-on duration and/or switch-off current and the switch-off duration are maintained until new set values have been determined based on the output voltage, output current, and/or temperature, a pulse duty factor between the switch-on duration and the switch-off duration is adapted, and the specified maximum allowable temperature increase of the switching element is further observed.

The invention relates to a method for operating a sensor arrangement (2) in a motor vehicle (1) on the basis of a DSI protocol in a Power Function Class mode, wherein the sensor arrangement (2) has a central unit (3) and a multiplicity of sensor units (S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . , S.sub.N), the central unit and the sensor units are connected to one another in series by means of a bus cable (4), the sensor units each have a test resistor (R.sub.S1, R.sub.S2, . . . , R.sub.N) connected in series with the bus cable, an electrical test load (L.sub.1, L.sub.2, . . . , L.sub.N) that can be connected to the bus cable, and an address counter (A.sub.1, A.sub.2, . . . , A.sub.N), having the following steps: transferring information between the central unit (Z) and the sensor units by means of a predetermined lower voltage (V.sub.LOW-PWR) and a predetermined upper voltage (V.sub.HIGH-PWR) as the respective bus voltage (U.sub.Bus) in communication phases, supplying the sensor units with electrical energy by means of the central unit in energy supply phases in which an idle voltage (V.sub.IDLE) is applied as the bus voltage, which is at least 1 V greater than the upper voltage, assigning a respective address to the individual sensor units in a previous address assignment phase by means of an address assignment voltage as the bus voltage, which is at least 1 V greater than the upper voltage.