Transient voltage surge propagation in DC power plants

The telecommunications engineering community is increasingly forced to integrate more product features into less physical space. This pressure has increased the sensitivity of advanced products to the damaging effects of transient voltage disturbances. In particular, transients on DC power bus feeds can enter microprocessor equipment and cause extensive circuit malfunction. This paper presents the circuit analysis of typical 3000 W power plant systems and investigates the effects of transient voltage surges through these systems. Various power plant components are tested in order to measure actual propagation levels and verify the legitimacy of circuit approximations. This includes the case study and testing of power supplies, rectifiers and communications circuits. Suppression circuits and devices are incorporated in order to verify and contrast the effectiveness of different surge suppression technologies. Of special interest is the comparison of metal oxide varistor (MOV) and silicon avalanche diode suppression (SASD) devices. Realistic surge waveforms are referenced and multiple regulatory surge immunity compliance issues are taken into consideration. Conclusions based on the transient propagation through a DC power plant and the mitigating effects of suppression devices are examined in detail.