In electrical engineering, surges/spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage (voltage spikes), current (current spikes), or transferred energy (energy spikes) in an electrical circuit. Mostly it damages the device or cause product defectives.
Typically caused by:
• Lightning strikes
• Power outages
• Tripped circuit breakers
• Short circuits
• Power transitions in other large equipment on the same power line
• Malfunctions caused by the power company
• Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) with electromagnetic energy distributed typically up to the 100 kHz and 1 MHz frequency range.
• Inductive spikes
Surges may be longitudinal (common) mode or metallic (normal or differential) mode. Some equipment damage from surges and spikes can be prevented by use of surge protection equipment. Each type of spike requires selective use of protective equipment.
A surge protector (or surge suppressor or surge diverter) is an appliance or device designed to protect electrical devices from voltage spikes. A surge protector attempts to limit the voltage supplied to an electric device by either blocking or shorting to ground any unwanted voltages above a safe threshold.
