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11. ESD-Protection Module (optional Hardware)
RF measurement devices can severely and permanently be damaged by elec-
trostatic discharge (ESD) impacts. In many laboratories special ESD precau-
tions are taken to avoid damages of electronic equipment.
To provide a higher degree of protection, the TDR device can optionally be
equipped with an ESD-protection module based on high-performance coax-
ial RF-switches. The RF input circuitry is protected by isolating the devices
RF-signal detector(s) from the coaxial connector(s) at times no measure-
ments are carried out.
Figure 17: Changing the auto-protection time in the options dialog
The user can define a protection time in the
Options Dialog
(see Fig.
The protection time defines the number of seconds after which the signal
detector is automatically isolated from the coaxial input connector. Setting
the time to
"0"
means that the protection is activated automatically di-
rectly after measurement.
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