Maxim protects medical equipment and reduces space and parts through simplified design.

What if medical equipment such as defibrillators, ECG diagnostics, and monitoring systems malfunctions due to static electricity?

MAXIM’s MAX30034 defibrillator protection device was developed to safely protect medical equipment from defibrillation pulses and electrostatic discharge (ESD). The company stated that by simplifying the design compared to existing components, it saves more than 75% of space, reduces the Bill of Materials (BOM), and improves performance.

ECG input amplifiers must withstand high-voltage pulses during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These high-voltage pulses can easily damage sensitive electronic circuits that capture heart signals in the millivolt range. To prevent such damage, a triple system integrating a Gas-Discharge Tube (GDT), Transient-Voltage Suppression (TVS) device, and ESD protection diode per channel is required.



Maxim's 4-channel MAX30034 defibrillation protection device absorbs high-voltage pulses and safely diverts them from sensitive circuits. The compact and rugged MAX30034 requires only a single small integrated circuit (IC) and two pairs of external resistors per channel. It saves over 75% of space by replacing primary GDTs and TVS, as well as secondary ESD diodes—traditional solutions for essential circuit protection. It can withstand over 100,000 defibrillation pulses without failure and maintain leakage current below 10 pA. This is 100 times less than the GDT/TVS method.

"We completely changed the configuration solution to safely protect medical devices from defibrillation pulses," said the senior product director at Maxim Integrated.