Designing Electronic Devices to Survive Power-Quality Events

The most common electric power-quality events-sags, swells, and transients-have been identified and quantified in national studies by US utilities and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Utilities are making efforts to improve power quality; however, it also makes sense to design loads, such as appliances, process control computers, and semiconductor manufacturing systems, to tolerate common power-quality events. This article suggests some design criteria for "power-quality-tolerant" designs, and suggests ways of achieving them. Warranty and service costs will be reduced and customer satisfaction increased.