It's Better With Bourns

Stay updated on the latest news and enabling technologies from Bourns. From new innovative products and application solutions to demonstrating our commitment to quality, on-time delivery and superior customer service, we invite you to learn why… It’s Better With Bourns

See Bourns at APEC for Advanced Solutions that Meet High-Power Density/Efficiency

Bourns will be showing practical solutions that address key market and application trends:

Increasing demand for higher efficiency and power density
Protection challenges driven by wide bandgap semiconductors (SiC/GaN)
Reliability and safety requirements in EV charging, renewable energy, and grid infrastructure
Miniaturization and thermal performance in industrial and data center power
Help with streamlining development from Bourns® components in reference designs

Bourns booth #1835, March 22-26, 2026, at the Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Multi-Stage Protection Approach that Boosts Smart Meter Longevity

Smart meters are the backbone of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in today’s evolving smart grid. Because they connect directly to AC mains while housing sensitive metrology and communication electronics, they are exposed to multiple types of harmful overcurrent threats. Without coordinated protection, these threats can cause data corruption, field failures and costly service calls.

A new technical paper outlines a comprehensive, multi-stage protection strategy using Bourns® circuit protection and passive components to enhance smart meter resilience and help extend service life to 25 years or more. Effective protection solutions such as IsoMOV® Hybrid Protectors, GDTs, MOVs and PTVS diodes defend the primary AC inlet. Then, designers can employ Multifuse® PPTC Resettable Fuses, TVS diodes and MLVs to help safeguard low-voltage metrology and DC rails. For communication interfaces, Bourns® TBU® High-Speed Protectors paired with TVS diode arrays provide fast, resettable protection that preserves signal integrity.

The paper also highlights precision components including low-TCR shunt resistors, bridge rectifiers and Schottky diodes to maintain long-term measurement accuracy and efficient power delivery. Learn how a coordinated protection approach can maximize smart meter reliability, reduce maintenance costs and support more resilient, self-healing power grids.

New High Energy GDTs Offer Industry-Leading Surge Protection

High-energy AC-DC power systems, including those in EV charging infrastructure, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and industrial power conversion equipment, are known to experience detrimental commutation or fault insertion events. The recently announced Bourns® GDT225HE Series High Voltage, High Energy GDTs deliver industry-leading surge protection performance that is especially designed to meet these system protection requirements. Making this series well-suited for system-level surge and fault protection is its ability to safely conduct prolonged high thermal (I²t) energy during transient conditions. These GDTs are also ideal solutions for equipotential bonding and for lightning-prone designs where high-energy discharge must be safely diverted and controlled.

Looking for a space-saving alternative to bulky surge protection solutions? Find out more about the compact and low-profile footprint and reduced volume advantages the high current handling GDT225HE Series can provide for your AC power line applications.

Designing Robust Smart Meters that Enhance Reliability and Accuracy

Accurate, real-time energy measurement is expected of residential smart meters operating on 120/240 V service, even under harsh utility line conditions. Direct connection to the mains exposes smart meter ICs and modules to lightning surges, switching transients and overcurrent events that can disrupt accuracy or cause premature failure.

Bourns engineers have developed a helpful application brief that details a coordinated protection and sensing approach that enhances durability without sacrificing precision. It highlights how Bourns® Low-ohm, Low-TCR Metal Strip Shunts provide stable current sensing under continuous load and fault conditions.

Providing effective protection for the smart meter’s AC front end, it is recommended to employ Bourns® SinglFuse™ SMD Fuses or Multifuse® Resettable PTCs and combine them with IsoMOV® Hybrid Protectors, GDT21 or GDT25 Series GDTs, and EV, PV or BVRA Series Varistors. The coordinated design is strengthened with fast-acting PTVS and SMF Series TVS Diodes that safeguard voltage buses and sensitive ICs. Additional Bourns® components help ensure reliable AC-DC conversion and support stable inrush limiting and energy dissipation.

Discover how Bourns’ integrated approach to precision sensing, surge protection and power conversion can improve residential smart meter reliability, maintain accuracy and help meet UL and IEC safety requirements.

Versatile Square-Package Air Coil Inductors Feature High Q Value and High Self-Resonant Frequency

Bourns just introduced five new air coil inductor series that feature high Q and high Self-Resonant Frequency (SRF) with tight inductance tolerance that enables designers to meet ongoing demands for smaller, faster and more compact electronics. Further adding to their manufacturing value, these air coil inductors are also available in a square package design with a flat top and bottom that streamlines reliable pick-and-place assembly while providing superior mechanical stability.

Ideal for today’s high-frequency TV and radio receivers, radio transmitters, RF amplifiers and tuning application designs, the Bourns® AC3028SQ, AC5037SQ, ACXX14SQ, ACXX15SQ Series Inductors have high Q values up to 230, with inductance ranging from 5.5 to 82 nanohenries (nH). Discover how to put these air coil inductors to work to meet your high-frequency application demands for enhanced signal filtering, efficient energy transfer and tight inductance tolerance.

Designing High Power Inductors for Compact DC-DC Converters

Due to the adoption of high‑frequency GaN and SiC wide bandgap switches, miniaturizing the converter has become one of the most important criteria for power electronics engineers. High-power inductors are key components in converter designs, and correctly designing them has a considerable effect on the net efficiency and size of the power converter.

As a resource for engineers, a Bourns white paper presents modeling and formulations for power inductors based on solid flat wire for high-power and compact DC-DC converters. In order to balance and control both low-frequency and high-frequency conduction losses, the considerations of the winding and selecting the wire type are the most challenging part of the design. While there are many different wire types employed in power inductors, this paper focuses on solid flat wires because they offer excellent performance, better manufacturability in PCBs and a reduced size.

See the detailed modeling and analysis this paper provides to find out why a solid round wire inductor with equivalent wire gauge and similar window size delivers the superior Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) for both AC and DC current components engineers need for their compact converter designs.