Abstract
Reduction in size and improvement of sensitive margins in modern semiconductor devices makes them increasingly susceptible to stress and subsequent damage caused by the overvoltage. A fast responding and higher energy absorbing overvoltage protection is desired. A hybrid solution is proposed. Moderate energy absorbing device is connected in parallel with a fast responding device to complement each other. Nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of these devices enables them to least interfere with the performance of the precision AC measurement system while reducing the effects of transient overvoltage on the system. In this paper, the causes of transient overvoltage in AC-DC measurement system are analysed and a hybrid semiconductor devices voltage limiting solution is proposed.