The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 25, 2008
Filed:
Jan. 03, 2005
Richard Harris, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Richard Harris, Palo Alto, CA (US);
FulTec Semiconductor, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A protection apparatus () is provided which in addition to protecting electronic equipment () from overvoltage transients is also able to provide an indication of whether or not said transients are due to impedances associated with poor earthing. In one embodiment the protection apparatus () includes an input terminal (), an output terminal () and a ground reference terminal () with a transient blocking unit () arranged to isolate the output terminal () in response to the destructive transient voltages. A gas discharge tube () is provided to conduct transient currents associated with the destructive transient voltages to the earth reference connection point (); and an indicator (), such as a fuse or circuit breaker is placed in series with the transient blocking unit () to indicate the presence of a voltage resulting from an interaction of the transient currents with an earthing impedance.