What the 1500W rating means on a repair bench
The 1.5KE16C-B: That 1500 W number tells you the device can absorb a 67.6 A surge before the clamping voltage hits 23.63 V — enough to protect a 13.6 V rail from a load-dump or lightning-induced transient without the part itself failing short. If you are reworking a board that originally used a 1.5KE16CA or similar, the lead spacing and body diameter match, so it drops into the same holes without a layout change.
Lifecycle reality — obsolete, not gone
Littelfuse lists the 1.5KE16C-B as obsolete. That means the factory stopped making it — no last-time-buy window remains. But the part is still available through independent surplus and broker channels; we source it against an RFQ, confirming quantity and pricing at quote time. No official successor order code is recorded. If you need a drop-in replacement, the 1.5KE series includes many bidirectional 1500 W parts with different standoff voltages — the closest functional match would share the same DO-201 package and 1500 W rating, but the standoff and clamping levels differ. A board-level review of the protected rail voltage is needed before substituting.
Temperature and environment
The operating junction temperature range spans -55°C to 175°C, covering military and industrial thermal profiles. No power line protection feature is built in — this is a transient suppressor, not a sustained overvoltage clamp.