December 10, 2013, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company providing a wide range of electronic applications, has unveiled the ISO8200B, a smaller, more robust, and energy-efficient isolated power switch for controllers in industrial automation equipment.

ISO8200B provides excellent space saving, user safety, noise immunity, reliability, and energy efficiency benefits for various industrial automation equipment and general PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) applications.

Industrial switches require physical separation or galvanic isolation to prevent the logic-control circuit from being affected by interference from the power side. Generally, discrete optocouplers take up more space on the PC board and cause functional degradation due to aging caused by heat.

Matteo Lo Presti, ST Group Vice President and General Manager of Industrial and Power Conversion, stated, “The ISO8200B isolated high-side switch is ST’s first integrated device to combine galvanically isolated power and logic circuits into a single package, which can make controllers smaller and bring the benefits of reduced cost of ownership (COO).” He added, “In addition, as the industry’s first device utilizing RF links to enable communication functions through an isolation layer, the ISO8200B offers excellent noise immunity in addition to superior robustness and reliable operation.”

The ISO8200B features separate logic and power chips stacked via a layer interposer, providing excellent isolation. Inputs are directly connected to a microcontroller or FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), and any load connected to ground voltage can be driven by connecting eight output channels, regardless of fluidity, capacitiveness, or resistivity. The ISO8200B complies with the RF immunity standard IEC 61000-4-3.

The design of this IC provides low standby mode drive current, enabling lower power consumption and energy savings compared to existing optocoupler-based solutions. Additionally, the power switch integrated into the ISO8200B has very low on-resistance, minimizing system energy loss and ensuring high reliability through excellent thermal performance.

The ISO8200B is designed for inductive loads requiring rapid self-extinguishing, such as motors or heaters, enabling space and cost savings. It features various built-in protection functions to safeguard the device from high temperatures, leakage current, undervoltage, overvoltage, and ground/supply voltage loss, while error signal output allows for direct monitoring of normal operation.