Silicon Labs introduces digital isolation products with powerful 10kV voltage surge protection

     Silicon Labs, a leading provider of digital isolation technologies in industrial automation and network infrastructure, announced the launch of a new family of multi-channel digital isolators with high-voltage isolation grids designed to withstand voltage surges of 10kV. Based on Silicon Labs' proprietary capacitive isolation technology, the new Si86xxxT digital isolator family provides strong secondary lightning protection while increasing system reliability for a wide range of demanding industrial applications.

     The Silicon Labs Si86xxxT family of digital isolators offers the industry's fastest and most accurate time-rank specifications, the highest noise suppression and reliability, the lowest electromagnetic noise radiation and the longest service life under high pressure conditions. The Si86xxxT digital isolator is ideal for applications that require the ability to withstand 10kV voltage surges, such as micro-inverters, base station power supplies, manufacturing equipment, motor control and drives, industrial uninterruptible power supplies, metering equipment, and battery management systems in electric vehicles.

     Developers of industrial applications are looking for enhanced isolation products to provide fail-safe protection against secondary lightning strikes, especially in applications where equipment is installed outdoors or where exposed cables or wires are vulnerable to lightning strikes. In addition to the need for voltage surge ratings up to 10kV, industrial equipment developers also need isolation products with fast timing, high noise suppression, long service life at high voltages, and a wide VDD and temperature range. Meeting these specifications helps developers improve the performance, utility, and security of their system designs. The Si86xxxT series meets all of these design requirements, providing the best 10kV isolation solution.

     The Si86xxxT family includes a wide range of 2- to 4-channel widebody packages for applications requiring higher levels of isolation. The Si86xxxT family of products is pin-compatible with existing digital isolators from Silicon Labs and other isolation vendors, providing better data rates, propagation latency, power consumption, size, reliability, and off chip bill of Materials (BOM) cost benefits than traditional isolation technologies.

     The operating parameters of the Si86xxxT digital isolator remain stable throughout the temperature range and device life cycle, making it easy to design and achieve highly consistent performance. The 10kV voltage surge protection capability ensures that the Si86xxxT isolator can be used as an "enhanced VDE" component, an important standard for many industrial, telecommunications and automotive applications. The long service life is particularly important for meeting the typical product life for industrial use.

     All Si86xxxT digital isolators have Schmidt trigger inputs for high noise suppression, and these highly integrated devices only require the addition of VDD bypass capacitors, reducing BOM costs and complexity. The Si86xxxT device supports data rates up to 150Mbps with propagation latency of only 10ns. The enable input pin provides a single point of control over enable and disable output drivers.

     Ross Sabolcik, vice president of Access and Isolation products at Silicon Labs, said: "For many industrial and green energy applications, 10kV isolation is a must to protect sensitive equipment against secondary lightning strikes and power surges. We have expanded our digital isolation portfolio to meet this critical customer need. "In addition to providing reliable 10kV voltage surge protection, our new Si86xxxT digital isolators have industry-leading time profile specifications, noise suppression, reliability and high voltage life."