SiLabs offers drop in replacement for ‘antiquated’ opto-drivers
The new Si826x family from Silicon Labs is being offered as a pin and footprint compatible functional upgrade solution for commonly used optocoupler isolated gate drivers.
The cmos based devices support up to 5kV isolation ratings and up to 10kV surge protection.
Encompassing a simple, digital architecture, they are designed to emulate the behaviour of opto-drivers by modulating a high frequency carrier instead of light from an led.
According to SiLabs, this provides a robust isolated data path that requires no special considerations or initialisation at start up.
In addition, because the input circuit mimics the characteristics of an led, the devices require less drive current – resulting in higher efficiencies.
"The Si826x isolated gate drivers provide a major step forward in isolation technology for industrial motor control by providing a package and footprint compatible drop in replacement for antiquated opto-drivers," said Mark Thompson, vice president and general manager of Access, Power and Sensor products at SiLabs.
