Design Considerations for BJT-Based Overvoltage

Protection Circuit

Lataza, Mikhael Glen

Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines
mlataza@gmail.com

AbstractThis paper analyzes a BJT-based overvoltage
protection circuit in order to layout component selection criteria
and calculations to design one. The design considerations were
put to test using a SPICE simulation and the circuit disconnects
the load from the source when the input voltage exceeds the
threshold voltage which is 0.7 V higher than the Zener voltage.
Keywordscomponent; formatting; style; styling; insert (key
words)
The controller can be designed to cut-off the load from the
source when the input voltage exceeds the voltage threshold
(VTHRES) or clamp the input voltage to keep it at VTHRES.
III. TOPOLOGY
For this overvoltage protection circuit, the load is
disconnected from the source is cut-off when the input voltage
exceeds VTHRES. The topology is based from a design in [1].

I. INTRODUCTION
Electronic devices are designed to operate at a maximum
voltage. But voltage surges although transient, could cause
damage to the device. So, an overvoltage protection circuit is
implemented to either disconnect or clamp the circuit when
exceeds a set voltage threshold.

II. BASIC OPERATION

An overvoltage protection circuit consists of two
components: controller and pass element. The pass element is
usually a transistor which controls the connection between the
source and load. The connection is shown in the figure below.
Fig. 2. BJT-based overvoltage protection circuit.
The circuit requires a total of three low power PNP
transistors and one high power NPN transistor. Although the
circuit looks complex, its operation is simple. The circuit can
be divided into four subsections: indicator, reference, switch,
and pass element, as shown in the figure below.

Fig. 1. Basic components of an overvoltage protection circuit.

Fig. 3. Subsections of the overvoltage proection circuit.

The controller senses the input voltage from the source and
controls the pass transistor by varying the current it feeds into
the base (for BJT) of the pass transistor.
A. Reference
The reference circuit uses a resistor-zener diode network.
When the input voltage is below the Zener voltage, the Zener
diode does not conduct, thus the input voltage is dropped
across the Zener diode. On the other hand, when the input
voltage exceeds the Zener voltage, the Zener diodes voltage
drop is fixed at the Zener voltage (VZ) and the excess voltage is
dropped across the resistor (VR). This operation is illustrated in
the figure below.
Fig. 4. Voltage across zener diode (VZ) and voltage across series resistance
(VR) vs input voltage (VIN).
B. Indicator
VR is sensed by the switch transistors (QSW) base-emitter
voltage (VBE). When VR reaches 0.7 V, QSW turns on and
conducts current to the LED, lighting it.
C. Switch
The QSW for the switch subsection operates in a similar way
as that of the indicators QSW. When VR reaches 0.7V, QSW
turns on and conducts current to the drive resistor (RD)
increasing the base voltage of the pass element, turning off the
transistor. When VR is below 0.7V, QSW is off, and the base
voltage of the pass element is pulled to the ground through RD.
This is illustrated in the figure below.
Fig. 5. State of the pass element (yellow) at various VIN.
As shown in the figure above, the pass element turns off
when VR reaches 0.7 V. This occurs at a VIN exceeding VZ by
0.7 V. Hence, the voltage threshold (VTHRES) is given by (1).
This result implies that VTHRES depends on VZ, and its error
is equal to the variation of VZ due to external effects.
D. Pass Element
For the pass element, a Sziklai pair in a PNP version is used
as a pass transistor. The Sziklai Pair, Connection or Compound
/ Complementary Pair, is a two-transistor circuit that is
complementary to the Darlington pair and offers a similar beta
boosting gain [2]. Unlike the Darlington pair (with 1.4 V turn-
on voltage), the Sziklai pair has a smaller turn-on voltage, at
around 0.7 V. It is used because it consumes less base current
to keep the pass element ON.
IV. COMPONENT SELECTION
In this section, formulas required to select the component
ratings are presented per subsection.
A. Pass Element
The pass element consists of two transistors: the pass
transistor (QPASS) and the drive transistor (QD). When the pass
element is ON, QPASS carries the load current. Hence, it must
be capable of handling the maximum load current (ILOAD(max))
(2). Since, the pass transistor is a BJT, there is a 0.7V voltage
drop.
When the pass element is OFF, QPASS must be capable of
dropping the whole input voltage. Thus, the collector-emitter
maximum voltage (VCEO(max)) must be greater than the
maximum input voltage (VIN(max)) (3).
QD provides enough base current to turn-on QPASS. QD must
also have a high current gain to improve the sensitivity of the
pass element. When the pass element is ON, QD must be
capable of providing the saturation base current (IB_PASS(sat)) of
the pass transistor (4).
When the pass element is OFF, the whole input voltage is
dropped across QD and must be capable of handling the large
voltage drop. Hence, QD must obey (3) too.
The drive resistor (RD) must be small enough to turn on the
pass element or saturate QD. Thus, RD can be calculated using
(5).
B. Switch table below lists the saturation characteristics for 2N3906 [3].
While the pass element is ON, the collector-emitter voltage For this simulation, the indicator subsection was excluded.
(VCE) of the switch transistor (QSW) is equal to the saturation
base-emitter voltage (VBE(sat)) of QD. There is no constraint in TABLE I. SATURATION CHARACTERISTICS OF 2N3906 [3].
VCEO(max) of QSW. However, QSW must be capable of producing
Characteristic Value Unit
enough current to pull the drive resistor close to VIN(max) where VCE(sat) -0.25 V
the pass element is OFF. VBE(sat) -0.85 V
IB(sat) -1.00 mA

TIP41C NPN power transistor was used for QPASS because

of availability and its capability of handling load current up to

6 A [4].
At higher input voltages, the voltage across the Zener diode As voltage reference, the 1N4742 Zener diode was used.
is constant (fixed at VZ) and the base-emitter voltage (VBE) is The Zener diode characteristics are listed in the table below.
0.7 V. Thus, the base resistance (RB) must be large enough to
limit the base current of QSW at maximum input voltage TABLE II. CHARACTERISICS OF 1N4742 [5].
(VIN(max)) (7).
Characteristic Value Unit
VZ 12 V
IZK 0.25 mA

A. Circuit Design
The minimum input voltage (VIN(min)) of the circuit is 6 V
and the maximum input voltage (VIN(max)) of the circuit is 30 V.
C. Indicator Using the characteristics of the components listed in Table I
Since the QSW for the indicator subsection only powers an and Table II, the overvoltage protection circuit was designed
LED indicator, there is not much constraint in the collector for simulation. The resistances were calculated using (4), (7)
current rating of the transistor. and (9) and were summarized in the succeeding table.
Like in the previous section, the base resistance can be
calculated using (7). TABLE III. RESISTANCES OF THE OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION CIRCUIT

The LED resistance (RLED) must be large enough to protect Resistance Value (k)
the LED from taking excessive current. Hence, RLED is RD 5.15
calculated using (8). RB 17.15
RZ 72.00

A voltage source was connected to the left side of the
D. Reference
The Zener resistance (RZ) limits the current through the
Zener diode. Hence, limiting the power dissipated by the diode.
RZ should be large enough to still allow current for the diode to
regulate its voltage. Thus, RZ should be calculated using (9) in
which IZK is the Zener knee current.
B. Simulation Setting
overvoltage protection circuit and a load of 10 was
connected to the right side of the circuit.
The simulation was set to DC Sweep to vary the input
voltage of the protection circuit. The input voltage starts at 5 V
increasing linearly up to 30 V at 0.01 V intervals.
The voltage across the load was then measured to see the
effect of the overvoltage protection circuit.

C. Results
The load voltage vs input voltage was taken from the
simulation and shown in the figure below.

V. SIMULATION
A sample overvoltage protection circuit was simulated
using LTSpice XVII. For the sample circuit, the 2N3906
general purpose PNP transistor was used for QSW and QD. The
 VI. SUMMARY
In this paper, the calculations and component
considerations required to design a BJT-based overvoltage
protection circuit was laid out and tested its effectivity using
SPICE simulation.

REFERENCES

[1] All About Circuits, Voltage Protection Circuit, Allaboutcircuits.com,

Fig. 6. Output voltage vs input voltage graph. February 5, 2010. Retrieved from
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/voltage-protection-
At input voltage below 12.63 V, the output voltage follows circuit.47978/.
the input voltage and falls to zero at higher input voltage. [2] Electronics Notes, Sziklai Pair: Sziklai compound or complementary
Therefore, the circuit protected the load from excess voltage by pair, Electronics-notes.com. Retrieved from https://www.electronics-
disconnecting it from the source. That the measured VTHRES is notes.com/articles/analogue_circuits/transistor/sziklai-compound-
complementary-pair.php.
close to the theoretical VTHRES (which is 12.7 V) set by (1).
[3] STMicroelectronics, 2N3906 Small Signal PNP Transistor, Datasheet,
There is also a voltage drop of 0.3 V to 0.5 V from the pass February 2003.
element. [4] ON Semiconductor, 6 Ampere Complementary Silicon Power
Transistors 40-60-80-100 Volts, 65 Watts, Datasheet, Rev. 5,
September 2005.
[5] General Semiconductor, 1N4728 thru 1N4764 Zener diodes,
Datasheet.