ESD protection TVS's for high speed comms?

[cupoftea]

Hi,
The low capacitance of these TVS based ESD protectors makes them great for high speed comms lines. However, even the 0402 version wont clamp voltages under 12V. As such, do you think that their use is literally confined to high speed comms circuits, where they just basically provide a “better than nothing” protection?…even though they don’t clamp the voltage low enough for sub 12V comms lines?

PGB1010402 datasheet
https://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/.../littelfuse_pulseguard_pgb1_datasheet.pdf.pdf

 

[dick_freebird]

Clamping to 12V may suffice to protect logic inputs,
there is a "gap" between abs max pin rating in the
datasheet and what happens at ESD-pulse timescales
(e.g. short-pulse BVox is always 2X or more than
quasi-DC, ramp-to-current BVox in my experience).
Liable to be a better answer for "5V" inputs, than
"1.2V" LVDS running off a 1.8V I/O rail (with gate
BVox running maybe 4V).

But if it were me, I'd be checking the TVS and serial
lines on some test-to-fail victim boards with my own
TLP or a proper ESD pin-pin tester just to see where
things really do fail.