Semiconductor Application Note

1Motorola Optoelectronics Device Data

AN571A IsolationTechniquesUsing OpticalCouplers

Prepared by:Francis Christian

INTRODUCTION

The optical coupler is a venerable device that offers the de-sign engineer new freedoms in designing circuits and sys-tems. Problems such as ground loop isolation, common modenoise rejection, power supply transformations, and manymore problems can be solved or simplified with the use of anoptical coupler.Operation is based on the principle of detecting emittedlight. The input to the coupler is connected to a light emitterand the output is a photodector, the two elements being sepa-rated by a transparent insulator and housed in a light–exclud-ing package. There are many types of optical couplers; forexample, the light source could be an incandescent lamp ora light emitting diode (LED). Also, the detector could be photo-voltaic cell, photoconductive cell, photodiode, phototransistor,or a light–sensitive SCR. By various combinations of emittersand detectors, a number of different types of optical couplerscould be assembled.Once an emitter and detector have been assembled as acoupler, the optical portion is permanently established so thatdevice use is only electronic in nature. This eliminates theneed for the circuit designer to have knowledge of optics.However, for effective application, he must know something ofthe electrical characteristics, capabilities, and limitations ofthe emitter and detector.

COUPLER CHARACTERISTICS

The 4N25 is an optical coupler consisting of a gallium arse-nide (GaAs) LED and a silicon phototransistor. (For more in-formation on LEDs and phototransistors, see References 1and 2.)The coupler’s characteristics are given in the following se-quence: LED characteristics, phototransistor characteristics,coupled characteristics, and switching characteristics. Table1 shows all four for the 4N25 series.

INPUT

For most applications the basic LED parameters IFand VFare all that are needed to define the input. Figure 1 showsthese forward characteristics, providing the necessary in-formation to design the LED drive circuit. Most circuit applica-tions will require a current limiting resistor in series with theLED input. The circuit in Figure 2 is a typical drive circuit.The current limiting resistor can be calculated from the fol-lowing equation:R

+

VIN –VFIF,whereVF= diode forward voltageIF= diode forward current

Figure 1. Input Diode Forward Characteristic

IF, Instantaneous Forward Current (mA)1.01.0IFVinR

Figure 2. Simple Drive Circuit for an LED

2.05.020105010020050010002.01.81.61.41.2

v F , I n s t a n t a n e o u s F o r w a r d V o l t a g e ( V o l t s )

TJ= 25

°

C

REV 1

Order this documentby AN571A/D

MOTOROLA

SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATION NOTE

©

Motorola, Inc. 1995

AN571A

2Motorola Optoelectronics Device Data

LED CHARACTERISTICS

(TA= 25

°

C unless otherwise noted)

CharacteristicSymbolMinTypMaxUnit

*Reverse Leakage Current(VR= 3.0 V, RL= 1.0 M ohms)IR —0.05100

µ

A*Forward Voltage(IF= 50 mA)VF —1.21.5VoltsCapacitance(VR= 0 V, f = 1.0 MHz)C—150—pF

PHOTOTRANSISTOR CHARACTERISTICS

(TA= 25

°

C and IF= 0 unless otherwise noted)

CharacteristicSymbolMinTypMaxUnit

*Collector–Emitter Dark Current(VCE= 10 V, Base Open)4N25, 4N26, 4N274N28ICEO — —3.5 —50100nA*Collector–Base Dark Current(VCB= 10 V, Emitter Open)ICBO ——20nA*Collector–Base Breakdown Voltage(IC= 100

µ

A, IE= 0)V(BR)CBO70——Volts*Collector–Emitter Breakdown Voltage(IC= 1.0 mA, IB= 0)V(BR)CEO30——Volts*Emitter–Collector Breakdown Voltage(IE= 100

µ

A, IB= 0)V(BR)ECO7.0——VoltsDC Current Gain(VCE= 5.0 V, IC= 500

µ

A)hFE —250——

COUPLED CHARACTERISTICS

(TA= 25

°

C unless otherwise noted)

CharacteristicSymbolMinTypMaxUnit

*Collector Output Current(1)(VCE= 10 V, IF= 10 mA, IB= 0)4N25, 4N264N27, 4N28IC2.01.05.03.0 — —mA*Isolation Voltage(2)4N254N26, 4N274N28VISO25001500500 — — — — — —VoltsIsolation Resistance(2)(V = 500 V) ——1011 —Ohms*Collector–Emitter Saturation(IC= 2.0 mA, IF= 50 mA)VCE(sat) —0.20.5VoltsIsolation Capacitance(2)(V = 0, f = 1.0 MHz) ——1.3—pFBandwidth(3)(IC= 2.0 mA, RL= 100 ohms, Figure 11) ——300—kHz

SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS

Delay Time(IC= 10 mA, VCC= 10 V)4N25, 4N264N27, 4N28td — —0.070.10 — —

µ

sRise TimeFigures 6 and 84N25, 4N264N27, 4N28tr — —0.82.0 — —

µ

sStorage Time(IC= 10 mA, VCC= 10 V)4N25, 4N264N27, 4N28ts — —4.02.0 — —

µ

sFall TimeFigures 7 and 84N25, 4N264N27, 4N28tf — —7.03.0 — —

µ

s

*

Indicates JEDEC Registered Data 1. Pulse Test: Pulse Width = 300

µ

s, Duty Cycle

p

2.0%.2.For this test LED pins 1 and 2 are common and Photo Transistor pins 4, 5 and 6 are common.3.IFadjusted to yield IC= 2.0 mA and IC= 2.0 mAp p at 10 kHz.

OUTPUT

The output of the coupler is the phototransistor. The basicparameters of interest are the collector current ICand collectoremitter voltage, VCE. Figure 3 is a curve of VCE(sat)versus ICfor two different drive levels.

COUPLING

To fully characterize the coupler, a new parameter, the dccurrent transfer ratio or coupling efficiency (

η

) must be de-fined. This is the ratio of the transistor collector current to diodecurrent IC /IF. Figures 4A and 4B show the typical dc currenttransfer functions for the couplers at VCE= 10 volts. Note that

η

varies with IFand VCE.

4N274N28IF= 25 ICIF= 50 ICTJ= 25

°

C4N254N26

Figure 3. Collector Saturation Voltage

0.051.00.80.60.400.2IC, Collector Current (mA)5020105.02.01.00.50.20.1

V C E ( s a t ) , C o l l e c t o r - E m i t t e r S a t u r a t i o n V o l t a g e ( V o l t s )

AN571A

3Motorola Optoelectronics Device DataOnce the required output collector current ICis known, theinput diode current can be calculated byIF= IC /

h

,whereIFis the forward diode currentICis the collector current

η

is the coupling efficiency or transfer ratio.

101.0

4N27, 4N28

1005020105.01.02.00.50.20.10.51.02.05.01020501002005000.55.0102050100VCE= 10 VTJ= –55

°

C

Figure 4B. DC Current Transfer Ratio

IF, Forward Diode Current (mA)

Figure 4A. DC Current Transfer Ratio

100

°

C25

°

CTJ= –55

°

CVCE= 10 V

4N25, 4N26

IF, Forward Diode Current (mA)5.010020502.01.00.20.52.00.1500200

I C , C o l l e c t o r C u r r e n t ( m A ) I C , C o l l e c t o r C u r r e n t ( m A )

100

°

C25

°

C

RESPONSE TIME

The switching times for the couplers are shown in Figures5A and 5B. The speed is fairly slow compared to switchingtransistors, but is typical of phototransistors because of thelarge base–collector area. The switching time or bandwidth ofthe coupler is a function of the load resistor RLbecause of theRLCOtime constant where COis the parallel combination ofthe device and load capacitances. Figure 6 is a curve of fre-quency response versus RL.

4N25, 4N264N27, 4N28

Figure 6. Frequency Response

0.51.02.05.0trTA= 25

°

Cf, Frequency (kHz)20100.20.10.050.50.71.02.03.05.07.010203050tfts3.02.01.00.70.50.30.210000.1700500300200100705030 2001005020105.02.01.00.50.2

TURN–OFF TIME

500

Ω

IC, Collector Current (mA)503020107.05.03.02.01.00.70.5 IC, Collector Current (mA)

Figure 5A. Switching TimesTURN–ON TIMEFigure 5B. Switching Times

t , T i m e (

td4N25, 4N264N27, 4N28

µ

s ) t , T i m e (

µ

s ) i c , C o l l e c t o r O u t p u t C u r r e n t ( N o r m a l i z e d )

VCC= 10 VIF= 20 ICTJ= 25

°

CVCC= 10 VIF= 20 ICTJ= 25

°

CRL= 100

Ω

1000

Ω

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