AVX TransGuards™ are multilayer zinc oxide devices that act as bi-directional zeners in the ON state. In the OFF state they act like an X7R capacitor with capacitances available from <1pf to 16000pf. The TransGuard™ family has several electrical and physical advantages over zeners: 1) They are physically smaller than diodes. 2) Electrically, TransGuards™ have the ability to withstand larger in-rush currents and transient power than similar sized diodes. 3) They are more stable with temperature and withstand a larger number of transient pulses than diodes, and 4) All TransGuards™ turn on faster than all other protection device options when a transient occurs.