High-Speed 10-Mbaud Optocouplers Have Wide Voltage Supply Range
Optocouplers have been the go-to for isolating analog and high-speed digital signals traveling through power supplies and systems for decades, enhancing reliability and safety. Since they can facilitate the safe transfer of signals and data from the input stage in a power supply and its output terminals or load, they’re a constant presence in industrial and automotive sectors.
A new family of high-speed 10-Mbaud optocouplers from Vishay Intertechnology feature a minimal supply current of 5 mA and a wide voltage supply range of 2.7 to 5.5 V. The single-channel VOH260A, VOIH060A, and VOWH260A, and dual-channel VOH263A and VOIH063A, are ideal for data communications, high-speed ADC and DAC, level shifting, and providing high-voltage safety in industrial automation and motor drives.
Housed in DIP-8, SMD-8, and SOIC-8 packages, the new devices use a highly efficient input LED coupled to an integrated photodetector. The optocouplers combine a maximum supply current of 5 mA per channel with a low typical turn-on threshold current of 2 mA. As a result, it’s unnecessary to use additional driver stages to directly connect to the MCU in the system. The new optocouplers also have open-collector outputs.
In any system that operates at voltages rising to several hundred or even thousands of volts, isolation is indispensable to prevent hazardous high voltages from straying into sections of the system not specifically designed to handle them. These optocouplers feature an internal shield that provides a guaranteed common-mode transient immunity (CMTI) of 15 kV/μs minimum. Combined with their low turn-on threshold and supply current, this suits the optocouplers for noise isolation and breaking up ground loops.
The devices offer maximum rated withstand isolation voltage up to 5000 V RMS, and provide isolation distances from 5 to 10 mm to cover a wide range of requirements, including when working voltages exceed 1000 V.