Brad Albing

Brad Albing, Editor in Chief, 11/25/2013 Login

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At some point in ancient technology history, someone realized they

needed to isolate a control signal. By "isolate" we mean that no common
electrical signal path would exist between the control signal and the
controlled device. Another term for this is galvanic isolation.

Before 5V, 3.3V, and 1.8V logic, this isolation was usually used in
industrial control applications. "Ground" or circuit common in one piece
of equipment could easily be at a significantly different potential than
ground in an adjacent piece of equipment (and this is still an issue).
Control signals could be passed from subsystem to subsystem via
relays, making the circuit common issue moot. Also in use: an early,
simpler form of the optocoupler -- a small light-tight module with an incandescent or neon lamp
and a cadmium sulfide (CdS) photo cell mounted side-by-side.

Crude, but effective. And, of course, the predecessor to the silicon

based opto-isolator IC. The incandescent and neon lamp version are
useful in applications where the controlling voltage is in the range of
12V to several hundred volts, AC or DC. These optocouplers were not
useful for conveying rapidly changing signal information, but at the
time, they worked just fine.

Once the need for passing fast-changing

(Source: Avago) signals came to the fore, the silicon-based
optocoupler really began to shine (pun
intended). These use an LED and a phototransistor or a photodiode
plus amplifier, so they could be pretty speedy. And it was easy to put
multiple devices in one package -- handy for moving lots of digital
signals to and fro.

Now we are starting to see a new type of signal coupling device. It

does not use light -- no LEDs and phototransistors. Instead, the
coupling is done magnetically. The device shown below is the Analog
Devices ADuM144x series.
(Source: Fairchild)
 (Source: ADI)

Again, putting multiple channels in one package is common. Better yet, this one has bidirectional
capability on two of the four channels, useful in some data-com applications. And these devices
can pass data about as fast as or faster than the opto devices. Isolation looks quite good and
current draw is better than the LED devices -- plus these can easily operate at lower supply
voltages.

These nice features come at a price, however. By which I mean that the price you pay for such
features is the increased price compared to a 4N25. Note also that the ADI parts do have some
amount of susceptibility to external magnetic fields. A closer look at the data sheet (cited above)
will shed some light (so to speak) on the degree of susceptibility.

Which methods of isolated coupling techniques have you used? What works well and what
problems have you run into?

Related posts:

(Under)standing Your Ground

The Ground Myth
Reclaiming Lost Knowledge
Questions About Analog? Step Right Up

— Brad Albing, Editor-in-Chief, Planet Analog and Integration Nation

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