Overvoltage protection circuits have been developed to protect oscilloscope inputs or other 50‐&OHgr; recording systems from fast (&tgr;r∼1 ns) rise‐time pulses. These circuits are voltage dividers with linear output up to a specified level, typically 1.4 V, beyond which fast switching diodes limit the output to ≲5 V for inputs as high as 5 kV. The clipping circuits are frequency compensated for flat response to several hundred megahertz.