Category Archives: Communications

January 31, 2012

Join us at the APEC 2012 Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida

Posted by Around the Circuit Blog Team

Come visit TE Circuit Protection at booths 810 and 812 at the APEC 2012 conference and expo to learn how our circuit protection products can help make your devices safer and more reliable. The show will be held in Orlando, Florida at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort. The expo will be from February 6th-8th and the conference will continue to the 9th. We will be unveiling several new circuit protection technologies at the show so it is definitely an event you don’t want to miss. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2012

A Year (and a Name) to Remember

Posted by Around the Circuit Blog Team

2011 was certainly a momentous year for TE Circuit Protection. Here are just some of the highlights:

  • New name-In March, our parent company became TE Connectivity.
  • New website- TE Circuit Protection launched an updated website in May, www.circuitprotection.com, that is dedicated to circuit protection solutions.
  • New products take off- Introduced in late 2010, by 2011 our RTP (reflowable thermal protector) device and the MHP (metal hybrid PPTC) rapidly gained popularity as people learned about their unique benefits. Product of the year win– In December we were notified that the MHP device won a prestigious 2011 “Product of the Year” award from Electronic Products magazine.

Continue reading →

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December 15, 2011

ESD Design Considerations for Mobile Device Applications

Posted by Barry Brents

In the 1970’s, rubbing your feet across the green shag carpet to generate a static charge in order to torture your siblings was fun and would do no damage to the low-tech, large, and robust electronic components of the time. Today, portable devices designed for the increasingly busy, yet very well connected, mobile user has led to the integration of more and more inputs and outputs on our favorite gadgets. Higher current densities, smaller silicon, and limited space available for chip protection all tend to increase the sensitivity of electronic components to transient electrical overstress events such as ESD (electrostatic discharge). Reducing the impact of these transients helps prevent data corruption when devices are talking to each other and improves overall reliability. Continue reading →

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November 15, 2011

Paul O’Shea Discusses Circuit Protection With Our Own Robert Cid at Smart Grid Forum 2011

Posted by Around the Circuit Blog Team

Last month Robert Cid our Product and Application Engineering Manager presented at the Smart Grid Electronics Forum in San Jose, CA. He discussed Concepts and Solutions for Protecting the Smart Grid from Transients and Electrical Faults. While attending the show he was invited to join Paul O’Shea from Electronic Products for an interview. You can find the video on their website in the videos section under the circuit protection tab. Continue reading →

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October 6, 2011

The Black Swans of Circuit Protection

Posted by Genaro Maldonado

Reading Nicholas Taleb’s “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” (Random House 2007), the definition of a Black Swan caught my attention.

“…an event with the following three attributes. First it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outliers status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.”
Could this description be relevant to circuit protection designs? I suggest that it can, based on these observations. Continue reading →

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September 16, 2011

Circuit Protection FAQ: Can I use a PolySwitch device for overtemperature control?

Posted by Around the Circuit Blog Team

Although primarily intended as an overcurrent protection device, the PolySwitch device can also be caused to trip by thermally linking it to a component or equipment that needs to be protected against overtemperature conditions – such as a motor. If the equipment temperature reaches the PolySwitch device’s switching temperature it will transition to its high impedance state, regardless of the current flowing through it. Continue reading →

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August 23, 2011

When Lightning Strikes

Posted by Huw Muncer

When I took over the beat of a salesman for Africa little did I realized that part of my role would be governed by a force of nature – lightning. Africa, in general – and Southern Africa in particular—is one of the world’s hot spots for lightning storms, making protection against damage from lightning strikes of paramount concern for wireless telecoms.
Continue reading →

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August 9, 2011

Is Anybody Building Telecom Equipment Anymore?

Posted by Barry Brents

Anyone over the age of 15 should remember the horrible sound of a thousand angry crows screeching and scratching their talons on a chalkboard. I am not talking about real crows; I am talking about the sound of a dial-up modem establishing an internet connection. We were all happy to listen to that, because it meant a fountain of internet would soon be flowing into our computers. In those days, the telecom business was growing quickly because everyone wanted to get as much data as they could, and the only way to do it was through the phone lines. Continue reading →

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August 2, 2011

Low-Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) Microgrids – Becoming a Reality

Posted by Matt Williams

To understand the distribution and delivery of DC (direct current) in microgrid applications, a useful analogy is to first think of how DC works at the printed circuit board (PCB) level. Direct current, although pico in nature, is distributed on the PCB in various voltages for different functions to power the components within the application. Now, imagine DC power distribution on a “higher” plane and you have the concept of DC distribution at the microgrid; either at the building or at room level, where it powers applications inside the premises. Continue reading →

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July 20, 2011

Wired For Speed – the New Face of the Electronics Salesman

Posted by Huw Muncer

I have been a salesperson for the electronics industry for more than 20 years. During that time I’ve observed that not only has the industry itself been turned on its head, but that the manner of selling components has also changed dramatically. Continue reading →

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