15-Mbaud Highly Integrated Optocouplers Suit Many Applications

Dec. 16, 2004

According to their manufacturer, the ACSL-600 family from Agilent Technologies represents the industry's first 3.3-V, 15-Mbaud multichannel and bi-directional digital logic-gate optocouplers. "The 15 Mbauds is the industry's highest rate for a digital logic gate semiconductor solution," explains Gary Tay, business development manager for the Isolation Products Division of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group.

The company's patented die-stacking technique makes the optocouplers' small size possible. Light-emitting diode (LED) die and an insulating layer are stacked on a silicon substrate. The resulting small size suits the optocouplers for a wide range of applications in consumer, computer, communications, and industrial electronics.

The devices feature a minimum 10-Mbaud rate (15-Mbaud typical) and are compatible with low-power Schottky transistor-to-transistor logic (LSTTL)/TTL levels. They're available in dual-, triple-, and quad-channel versions supplied in compact eight-pin (4.9 by 5.9 by 1.7 mm for dual-channel units) and 16-pin (9.9 by 5.9 by 1.7 mm for triple- and quad-channel units) thin small-outline IC (SOIC) packages.

Also, they feature 10-kV/µs minimum common-mode rejection at a 1-kV common-mode voltage. Supply voltage ranges from 3.3 to 5.5 V. They operate from 40°C to 100°C. And, they meet the UL1577 (2500 V RMS), CSA Component Acceptance Notice No. 5, and IEC/EN/DIN EN 60747-5-2 (replaces VDE 0884) international safety standards.

The ACSL-600 optocouplers can be used for isolating a 24-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) from a microcontroller in a data-acquisition system digitizing the output of sensors. They also can be used in a Power over Ethernet (PoE) application, isolating the host controller from the host swap controller via I²C interfaces, to protect the host controller against high-voltage surges that occur during hot-swapping operations.

The ACSL-6400 with quad unidirectional channels costs $4.14 each, while the ACSL-6210 with dual bidirectional channels goes for $2.53 each, both in 10,000-unit lots. Agilent plans to introduce the triple unidirectional channel ACSL-6300, the triple bidirectional (2/1) channel ACSL-6310, the quad bidirectional (3/1) channel ACSL-6410, and the quad bidirectional (2/2) channel ACSL-6420 in the third quarter of 2005.

Agilent Technologies Inc.www.agilent.com (800) 235-0312

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About the Author

Roger Allan

Roger Allan is an electronics journalism veteran, and served as Electronic Design's Executive Editor for 15 of those years. He has covered just about every technology beat from semiconductors, components, packaging and power devices, to communications, test and measurement, automotive electronics, robotics, medical electronics, military electronics, robotics, and industrial electronics. His specialties include MEMS and nanoelectronics technologies. He is a contributor to the McGraw Hill Annual Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He is also a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and holds a BSEE from New York University's School of Engineering and Science. Roger has worked for major electronics magazines besides Electronic Design, including the IEEE Spectrum, Electronics, EDN, Electronic Products, and the British New Scientist. He also has working experience in the electronics industry as a design engineer in filters, power supplies and control systems.

After his retirement from Electronic Design Magazine, He has been extensively contributing articles for Penton’s Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) and Microwaves RF Magazine, covering all of the aforementioned electronics segments as well as energy efficiency, harvesting and related technologies. He has also contributed articles to other electronics technology magazines worldwide.

He is a “jack of all trades and a master in leading-edge technologies” like MEMS, nanolectronics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, military electronics, biometrics, implantable medical devices, and energy harvesting and related technologies.