Bi-directional I²C isolators said to be industry's first

Circuit & System Protection

12 July 2006 Circuit & System Protection

Analog Devices is introducing what it claims is the industry's first products to provide true bidirectional isolation for the I²C serial computer bus in industrial, networking and power supply applications.

Based on ADI's award-winning iCoupler technology, the company says the ADuM125x family of digital isolators reduces board space by as much as 80% and achieve a low-cost I²C isolation solution. This is accomplished by eliminating the optocouplers and support circuitry previously required in isolated I²C interfaces.

The I²C bus is a cost-effective, two-wire interface between controllers and peripheral devices. The bus uses bidirectional lines to transmit and receive signals over the same wire, allowing two-wire signalling of clock and data. This reduces complexity and cost by eliminating extra wiring and components. In a variety of applications, controllers or peripherals are isolated from the bus to avoid interference or harmful voltage levels. Typically, isolation has been achieved with optocouplers, but, using the ADuM125x isolators, only a single component is needed to provide bidirectional isolation for both of the I²C lines.

iCoupler I²C digital isolators are based on proprietary iCoupler chip-scale micro-transformer technology. They provide 2,5 kV of isolation across bidirectional I²C lines in a single, narrow-body 8-lead SOIC package. This eliminates the need for additional circuitry to split I#178;C signals into separate transmit and receive signals and then use standalone optocouplers. The ADuM1250 provides two bidirectional channels. The ADuM1251 provides one bidirectional channel and one unidirectional channel for those applications in which a bidirectional clock is not required. Both devices are capable of operation up to 400 Kbps and are compatible with SMBus and PMBus protocols.

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Bi-directional I²C isolators said to be industry's first

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