News & Events
Harris Semiconductor Introduces World’s First Nickel Barrier-Terminated Multilayer Surge Suppressor

— New Terminator multilayer varistor family provides improved device solderability, reduces downtime in harsh wave solder operations

ELECTRONICA, MUNICH, November 10, 1998—Harris Semiconductor, a worldwide leader in transient overvoltage surge suppression, announced today the worlds first complete line of Nickel Barrier-terminated multilayer (ML) suppression chips. Harris’ new Terminator family of MLs offer significant advantages in solderability and solder leaching over non-Barrier terminated systems, particularly in harsh wave solder operations.

"Using our patented Nickel Barrier process, we’ve achieved what many in the industry considered impossible," says Steve Cowman, Harris’ director of suppression products. "We have applied a technology which has long been used on chip capacitors, resistors and inductors to create surge suppression chips optimized for surface mounting. Our new Terminator family offers huge advantages over existing suppression technologies, and is a breakthrough product for our cell phone and mobile communications customers."

Standard terminations for multilayer transient voltage suppressors are silver-based, and generally achieve solder fillet height levels of 30 to 50 percent of the overall device height. Additionally, some silver-based terminations can dissolve into the solder bath during extreme PCB wave solder assembly, a damaging effect commonly known as "solder-leaching." The Nickel/tin process used to make Harris’ Terminator products prevents solder leaching, while providing improved solder fillet height levels of 50 to 70%.

"We’ve created a product family of multilayer suppressors which offers the solderability of chip capacitors and chip resistors in all solder-attach assembly operations," adds Cowman. "Feedback from customers who have received initial samples of the Terminator varistor has been extremely positive. In fact, many of our large European and North American customers have already qualified the Terminator for use in their products."

In the past, the unique electro-chemical attributes of multilayer suppression devices have made it impossible to Nickel Barrier-terminate multilayer varistors. The entire suppressor chip would become plated with nickel due to the conductive nature of the zinc oxide ceramic surface. The patented design of Harris’ Terminator series enable multilayer suppressors to be plated using the conventional process for Nickel termination and provides superior protection during extreme printed circuit board (PCB) solder assembly conditions. To ensure a highly solderable surface, the termination is further plated with a tin surface coating.

Price and Availability
Harris’ Terminator products are immediately available in 0603 and 0805 chip sizes. They are priced at $0.28 each in 10,000-piece quantities, and are available as a standard option on Harris’ complete line of ML and MLE multilayer suppressors. All devices are available in bulk or on tape-and-reel. For more information on Harris’ complete suppression offering, visit the company’s website at http://www.semi.harris.com/suppression.htm or stop by Booth # at Electronica.

About Harris’ Terminator ML/MLE Series
Widely used to prevent damage from transient radiation such as ESD (IEC 10002) and EFT (IEC 10004), Harris’ ML and MLE Series are fast-acting devices that can be used as part of a designer’s EMC compliance strategy. The devices feature bi-directional clamping that protect sensitive electronic circuitry from damage due to electrical transients. By replacing larger Zener diodes and resistor-capacitor combinations with Harris transient voltage suppressors, designers can conserve circuit board real estate and reduce insertion time and component costs.

Harris Semiconductor’s suppression product line combines systems-level expertise with a vast portfolio of products including metal oxide varistors (MOVs), multilayer suppressors (MLs), SCR Diode Arrays, Thyristor-based Surgector products , and Arresters. Harris provides suppression solutions for PBX, line card and switching applications in telecom; load dump and secondary protection for automotive applications; transient voltage and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection for computing and cellular telephone applications; and voltage surge and lighting protection for uninterruptible power supply (UPS), electric utility and industrial applications. Harris offers today's broadest line of protection devices — ranging in application from 3.5V logic circuits to 480kV AC power transmission distribution.

Harris Corporation's Semiconductor sector manufactures discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits. Product development efforts are focused on innovative "next level solutions" for the communications and power markets. The company’s broad portfolio of products serve many market segments – automotive, industrial, PC computing, wireless networking, signal processing, telecommunications, PC multimedia, consumer electronics, defense and space. The worldwide website is: http://www.semi.harris.com.

Harris Corporation, with worldwide sales of more than $3.9 billion, is an international

communications and electronics company that provides a wide range of products and services such as wireless and personal communications, digital television (HDTV), health care information, automotive electronics, transportation, business information, defense communications and information and Lanier office products.