Demonstration of a Novel Gigabit Optocoupler with Small Footprint and High Isolation Voltage

Optocouplers are optoelectronic components that transmit signals between galvanically separated circuits. Increased requirements on these devices have become apparent in recent years. A sufficiently high data rate and a high isolation voltage require large and costly solutions. In this paper, we introduce the GigaCoupler concept based on an optical wireless short-range transceiver technology. First experimental results show the feasibility of the approach and the potential to outperform other optocoupler technologies regarding data rate, isolation voltage and size. We demonstrate a data rate of 1.25 Gbps with an isolation voltage of multiple tens of kilovolts.