Electrostatic discharge conducting pathway having a noise filter spark gap

A power supply, comprising:

• a printed circuit board, including:
• a primary region to be coupled to an AC source;
• a secondary region;
• an isolation region disposed between the primary region and the secondary region to galvanically isolate the primary region from the secondary region;
• an electrostatic discharge (ESD) conducting pathway included in the primary region to redirect current to the AC source that crosses the isolation region, wherein the ESD conducting pathway includes a first conductive segment adjacent to the isolation region;
• and
• a spark gap included in the ESD conducting pathway, the spark gap to filter noise and to provide a current path to the AC source for the current that crosses the isolation region;
• and
• electrical components included in the primary and secondary regions of the printed circuit board, wherein at least one of the electrical components is a transformer having a primary winding coupled to the primary region and a secondary winding coupled to the secondary region and wherein the first conductive segment of the ESD conducting pathway is not connected to the transformer.

A method, comprising:

• providing an output voltage or current at an output of a power supply in response to an AC source coupled to an input terminal of the power supply;
• redirecting current with an electrostatic (ESD) conducting pathway having a spark gap, the ESD conducting pathway redirecting the current to the input terminal and wherein the current is current that crosses an isolation region of a printed circuit board of the power supply, wherein the ESD conducting pathway includes a first conductive segment adjacent to the isolation region and wherein the first conductive segment is not connected to a transformer of the power supply;
• and
• filtering-out noise received in the ESD conducting pathway with the spark gap.