Telephone exchange primary protection developments towards silicon structures

For the past few years, protection systems have been developing towards silicon components. This tendency, which has already been well established for secondary protection is also being applied to primary protection. Initially, the idea was to replace gas discharge arresters. However, the potential characteristics of silicon should be able to enrich this function by generating structures which, though monolithic, will integrate an increasing number of diagnostic functions, allowing the protection product to self-adapt to the instantaneous configuration of the circuit. The authors describe the various options which should emerge