With the spread of cloud computing and smartphones and the launch of 5G in 2020, the amount of data that moves on the internet is increasing as high-volume video and game data is added to existing documents, images, and sound data.
In addition, technologies are evolving, exemplified by AI, and a digital transformation (DX) is taking place as a result of the use of big data and the internet of things (IoT). To support these advances, however, large numbers of high-performance servers that can process large volumes of data will be needed. In conjunction with the increased performance of processors and various types of ICs, higher clock speeds of power supply ICs on server boards, high current power saving, miniaturization, noise countermeasures in data lines, and surge countermeasures have become urgent issues. Here, we introduce TDK products for addressing and solving these problems including the VLBU series of ferrite power inductors compatible with the high-efficiency needs of VR13 and VR14 applications, the FS series of DC-DC converters with embedded μPOL™, solutions using the ALT series of pulse transformers and ALC series of common mode filters and chokes, and chip varistors and ceramic transient voltage suppressors used for surge protection.

Industry 4.0 is being shaped by the continuing rise in the degree of automation, by the digitalization that includes the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and by high levels of energy efficiency. In this respect, TDK presents a wide range of innovative EPCOS and TDK key components.

Varistors can be used as suppressors to protect devices and circuits from transient abnormal voltages including an ESD (electrostatic discharge) and a lightning surge. For protection from a relatively large surge current (100A to 25kA), leaded disk varistors and SMD disk varistors are suitable. For protection from a larger surge current (approximately 25kA or more), block varistors, and strap varistors are suitable.
This article describes surge protection device applications for LED lighting system, inductive loads such as motors, motor with an electromagnetic brake, SSR (solid-state relay), load dump and field decay, joint boxes and power conditioners of solar power generation systems, important devices using a lightning transformer, and high-energy surge in industrial devices.