In summary, TRIACs can be used in applications with resistive loads and inductive loads such as motors. Sensitive gate TRIACs are able to be direct driven by a microcontroller with a resistor in series with the gate, providing an energy savings due to the low trigger current. In applications with inductive motors it is beneficial to have the high-immunity, dV/dt, against fast voltage transients and overvoltage clamping  as provided by the ACST. There are many different types of AC switch packages, from the inexpensive TO92 through the various standard packages and isolated packages to the insulated TO220 and molded plastic fullpack package. Also, there are several surface mount packages, including the SMBFlat, a lower height package which is useful when there are space constraints in an application. All of ST’s AC switches are RoHS compatible and more products are being converted to halogen-free status. The STCC08 is a monitoring device. When a Triac is turned on by the microcontroller, the STCC008 verifies that the Triac turns on properly, that it is conducting in both directions, and that it turns off when instructed to do so.