Signal- and power-isolated surface-mount RS-485/422 transceivers from ADI

The transceiver’s SMT package improves manufacturability by allowing system OEMs to mount the device using automated production tools, reducing manufacturing steps, and improving mechanical performance. What’s more, the small footprint frees up circuit board space for other system functions. This highly integrated device provides +/- 15 kV ESD protection on bus pins for a robust communications interface with isolated power for use in harsh industrial and instrumentation environments.

Analog Devices’ ADM2587E is a great fit for our applications that need an isolated RS485 transceiver but are short on board space,” commented Gary Turner, senior design engineer for Lineage Power, a leading provider of reliable and innovative standard and custom power conversion solutions. “This transceiver significantly reduces our bill of materials for these circuits.

The ADM2587E and ADM2582E transceivers are the first RS-485/422 transceivers to feature both data-line and power isolation and incorporate ADI’s well known iCoupler® and isoPower® isolation technologies in a tiny 10 mm x 13 mm WSOIC (wide body small outline integrated circuit) surface-mount package. With a 2.5-kV isolation rating, the new RS-485/422 transceiver complies with industry-standard isolation regulations, including UL1577 and DIN VDE 0884-10, ensuring it will meet the robustness levels required in noisy operating environments such as programmable logic controllers, distributed control systems, motor controls, building control systems, industrial fieldbus, and telecom equipment. The ADM2587E/ 82E transceiver’s SMT package will help to reduce time-to-market, accelerate the manufacturing process, and lower system development costs by reducing board space by as much as 84 percent and reducing component count by 83 percent compared with traditional ICs.

With more than 150 million channels deployed throughout the industry, ADI’s proven iCoupler technology is based on chip-scale transformers, rather than on the LEDs and photodiodes found in optocouplers. Transformers can support higher data rates and lower power consumption, and are more stable over life than LEDs and photodiodes. Fabricating the transformers directly on-chip, using wafer-level processing, integrates multiple iCoupler channels with other semiconductor functions at low cost. For more on ADI’s iCoupler digital isolation technology, please visit: www.analog.com/icoupler.

ADI’s isoPower dc-to-dc converter uses the same chip-scale transformer technology as iCoupler digital isolators. Instead of transmitting data, however, isoPower employs switches, rectifiers, and regulators to provide isolated power to the same safety levels as the data channels. For more on ADI’s technique for isolating power, please visit: www.analog.com/isopower.