Mini-Breakers (Miniature Thermal Cutoff Devices) - AEC-Equivalent Compliant* and Automotive Grade

Thermal Cutoff (TCO) devices, such as Bourns® Mini-Breakers, are utilized as safety measures to help prevent heat and fires produced by excess current, most notably in lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the latest Model AD & SD Series have now been qualified to the Bourns Automotive Grade standard. These products can be used for a wide range of automotive application protection circuits such as seat heaters, steering wheel heaters, door and panel heaters, sensors and camera heaters, actuator motors, semiconductor protection and charging plug connectors. These products can also be used in traditional breaker applications, for example, to safeguard batteries in electronic devices such as notebooks, PCs, tablets, digital cameras, and smartphones.

The trip temperature of the mini-breaker is a critical parameter for battery packs, and it is designed with the ability to target certain trip temperature values.

The component has UL safety standard certification and also uses environmental protection measures all around the globe. Bourns® Mini-Breakers are self-preserving devices that are intended to remain tripped (operated) at abnormal temperatures and then recover when power is turned off and the temperature returns to a safe level. When compared to polymer PTCs and temperature fuses used for the same applications, this enables protection at lower temperatures as well as long-term stability and accuracy.