Patent ID: 7719174

Claim:
A surface mounting discharge tube, comprising: a cylindrical ceramic envelope sealed at its two ends by side surfaces of electrodes, designed to be directly soldered onto a mounting board, where the electrodes at the two ends are rectangular, project outward radially at the ends of the ceramic envelope and are provided at peripheral edges at the side surfaces of the electrodes with soldering use tapers or step distance, where the step distance or taper is provided on the side surface of the electrode on the side that is to be connected to the ceramic envelope, and the step distance or taper of the electrode is exposed from the outside of the ceramic envelope, wherein the rectangular electrodes have four sides, each side being capable of mounting the discharge tube onto a printed circuit board, and the tapers or step distance are formed so that the electrode has a thickness increasing from the four sides toward a center axis of the cylindrical ceramic envelope.