Digital isolators suitable for household appliances

The digital isolators provide a superior alternative to optocouplers for washers, dryers, food mixers, vacuum cleaners and other household appliances, as well as test and measurement equipment requiring functional isolation. For applications that require multiple isolated signal channels, the family offers a superior functional isolation solution than other digital isolators (according to Silicon Labs).

Using capacitive isolation based on mainstream CMOS process technology, the Si80xx digital isolators overcome the limitations of optocouplers. Optocouplers are inherently limited by an antiquated LED-based technology resulting in significant output variations over input current, temperature and age, reducing the operating performance of optocouplers over their lifetime, causing increased design complexity and reduced product reliability.

The higher reliability and longer device lifetimes of the Si80xx series enable manufacturers to support longer product warranties and reduce costs associated with repair or replacement. System design is simplified, particularly in the input turn-on current, with less variability.

By switching from optocouplers to Si80xx digital isolators in their product designs, developers do not need to anticipate ageing effects: the operating parameters of the Si80xx digital isolators remain stable across wide temperature ranges and throughout their long service life for ease of system design and highly uniform performance in consumer applications.

The Si80xx isolators have up to 20dB lower electromagnetic emissions than competing solutions, eliminating the need for costly shielding. The devices deliver 10Mbps data rates across a wide temperature range from -40 to +125ºC, as well as low power operation of approximately 2mA per channel (five times lower than optocoupler alternatives) for energy-efficient system design.

Ross Sabolcik, Vice President and General Manager, Analog, Power and Sensor Products, Silicon Labs, commented: “Silicon Labs’ new Si80xx digital isolators are a perfect fit for high-volume, cost- and power-sensitive consumer electronics products that require a combination of 1kV functional isolation and higher channel count. The Si80xx family enables developers to upgrade their optocoupler-based applications with a more reliable, power-efficient and higher-performance digital isolation solution designed to reduce system cost and complexity.”

The Si80xx digital isolators are available now in compact 16-pin QSOP packages rated at 1kV, priced from $1.04 (USD) in 10,000 unit quantities. Silicon Labs also offers the Si80xxISO-KIT evaluation kit for $29 (USD) (MSRP). This provides an economical platform to evaluate the performance of Si80xx isolators.