Avago Technologies (AVGO) recently announced that it has enhanced its R2Coupler suite of products with the inclusion of three new isolation optocouplers. The newly added optocouplers will offer safe isolation for electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid/electric vehicle (HEV) applications including onboard charging systems and powertrain inverters while also ensuring that voltage range of existing R2Couplers optocouplers is effectively extended. Avago is a source of analog interface components designed specifically for wireless, wireline, and industrial applications.
In a statement, Cheng-Dee Lee, Business and Applications Development Director for Isolation Products at Avago, said that, "With industry trends targeting higher continuous isolation working voltage levels and higher levels of integration, our new optocouplers show our knowledge and commitment to these trends. By expanding our portfolio with enhanced feature sets and addressing isolation needs across markets, OEMs can easily balance their flexible design requirements. This allows them to meet the continual component challenge of integration that in turn reduces module size and volume of their end products."
The new devices have been designed to support robust integration of functions within modules, and isolated smart gate drives, and for analog sensing and digital communications. Powertrain inverters, onboard chargers and DC-DC converters leverage gate drives ensuring functioning of power devices such as MOSFETs and IGBTs.
They require isolation amplifiers for sensing high voltage bus levels and digital isolation to deliver status and feedback information from the octocoupler’s high voltage side to the microprocessor on the low voltage side.
Typically, high voltage, high current switching creates a noisy environment. However, optocouplers are an ideal fit as they are immune to high dV/dt transient noise and electro-magnetic coupling from high current cables. The provision of safe isolation for all isolation needs within EV and HEV applications adds to power efficiency while ensuring a reduction in system power loss.
The new optocouplers have been rated for continuous working voltages of 1140V or higher, which makes them ideally suited to address future requirements.
New products and feature sets from Avago include – the ACPL-34JT, which is an isolated gate drive featuring multiple smart functions and features to enhance integration; the ACPL-C87AT/C87BT isolation amplifier, which ensures instrumentation amplifier performance along with integrated isolation; and the ACPL-K7xT, which offers single and dual channel to effectively improve configurability and manage space savings.
Edited by Brooke Neuman