In industrial applications, companies face the challenge of improving manufacturing efficiency by maximizing the throughput, decreasing the scheduled maintenance, and down time for unexpected failures. In larger systems, RS-485 plays a critical role in communicating important data from one system to another. Any breakdown of the communication link can be costly, and reduce manufacturing productivity. Therefore, it is important for the fieldbus communication module to be as robust as possible. In fact, one of the main reasons for RS-485 failure in the field is due to ESD damage. To ensure protection of RS-485 transceivers and increased up time of the communication system, engineers and designers typically add external TVS diodes to protect the A and B data lines of the RS-485 transceiver. Diodes need to be carefully chosen to withstand the unexpected high voltage transients from the field. Adding these diodes can be costly and take up lots of PC board area.