Circuit Protection - Automotive
Automotive
TE Connectivity’s circuit protection devices offer protection for overcurrent, overvoltage and PCB trace faults for your vehicle’s sensitive electronics. Our resettable overcurrent protection for passenger vehicle and heavy truck wire harnesses also helps facilitate wire downsizing.
The switch console on the driver-side door allows the driver to control multiple functions, including power windows, side mirrors and power door lock. Small surface-mount PolySwitch devices help protect PCB traces against damage caused by overheating and smoking in the event of a short circuit.
Automotive electric motors can overheat and cause damage to temperature sensitive components. To help protect these components, custom made PolySwitch devices can be designed for specific customer applications. Installing a PolySwitch device in close proximity to the motor or solenoid offers the added benefit of limiting current due to excessive heat.
TE Connectivity’s Reflowable Thermal Protection (RTP) device is a robust, reliable surface mount thermal protector that helps prevent thermal damage caused by failed power electronics. The secondary thermal protection device can be used to replace redundant powerFETs, relays and heavy heat sinks typically used in automotive designs.
To help protect displays current limiting devices should be employed to help prevent thermal runaway due to a failure in the control circuitry. In most cases the circuit will be powered off on a regular basis (ie: when the ignition is turned off). In this case a resettable PPTC protection device may be desired. In other cases a single-use fuse may be preferred.
When an unsuitable or faulty USB cable is plugged into the USB port, the applied voltage, polarity and permitted current may exceed the specifications of the power regulation circuits. PolySwitch devices limit the flow of dangerously high currents during fault conditions and reset back to normal operating mode once the fault condition is removed; while PolyZen devices help clamp the voltage and shunt excess power to ground.
Resistive mode failures, dead shorts are of particular concern in Power FETs, IC’s, capacitors which may lead to thermal runaway. TE Connectivity’s Reflowable Thermal Protection (RTP) device is a robust, reliable surface mount thermal protector that helps prevent thermal damage caused by failed power electronics.
PolySwitch devices limit the flow of dangerously high currents during fault conditions that can occur when and reset back to normal operating mode once the fault condition is removed.
Charger circuits for mobile phones, iPods, after-market hands-free devices, or other battery operated equipment use connectors to plug into automobile cigarette lighters. Typically, overcurrent protection, such as a PolySwitch PPTC device, and overvoltage protection are coordinated at the input to the charger to help meet stringent electrical requirement.
Infotainment and navigation systems are packed with electronics and connectivity elements. TE circuit protection devices help protect a wide variety of functions such as powered antennae, CAN-bus, touch screen, USB ports, RF tuners, I/O lines, HDD, etc. Overcurrent and overvoltage protection devices such as PPTC & PolyZEN, help prevent system breakdown and enhance design safety.
The wiring harness architectures of light and heavy vehicles have undergone considerable change due to increased electrical and electronic content. Resettable circuit protection that does not need to be driver accessible, such as PolySwitch PPTC devices, offers a number of solutions that may be used separately or in combination.
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