Safe Operating Area - Limits of The Safe Operating Area

Limits of The Safe Operating Area

Where both current and voltage are plotted on logarithmic scales, the borders of the SOA are straight lines:

  1. IC = ICmax — current limit
  2. VCE = VCEmax — voltage limit
  3. IC VCE = Pmax — dissipation limit, thermal breakdown
  4. IC VCEα = const — this is the limit given by the second breakdown (bipolar junction transistors only)

SOA specifications are useful to the design engineer working on power circuits such as amplifiers and power supplies as they allow quick assessment of the limits of device performance, the design of appropriate protection circuitry, or selection of a more capable device. SOA curves are also important in the design of foldback circuits.

Read more about this topic:  Safe Operating Area

Famous quotes containing the words limits of, limits, safe, operating and/or area:

    “I shall have the veil withdrawn and be allowed to gaze unblinded on the narrow limits of my own possibilities.”
    —Beatrice Potter Webb (1858–1943)

    “The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
    —Terri Apter (20th century)

    “My safe, safe psychosis is broken.
    It was hard.
    It was made of stone.
    It covered my face like a mask.
    But it has cracked.”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    “... the modern drama, operating through the double channel of dramatist and interpreter, affecting as it does both mind and heart, is the strongest force in developing social discontent, swelling the powerful tide of unrest that sweeps onward and over the dam of ignorance, prejudice, and superstition.”
    —Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    “... nothing is more human than substituting the quantity of words and actions for their character. But using imprecise words is very similar to using lots of words, for the more imprecise a word is, the greater the area it covers.”
    —Robert Musil (1880–1942)