Avago Technologies Limited (Avago) has introduced a new extended temperature 2.5 Amp gate drive optocouplers, ACPL-312U, for industrial applications. The new ACPL-312U, which is a member of the R2Coupler family, incorporates an alloy lead frame to offer advanced heat dissipation, which allows it to operate over an extended industrial temperature range from -40 to 125 degrees C.

These new extended temperature optocouplers target designers of isolated IGBT/power MOSFET gate drives, industrial inverters, AC and brushless DC motor drives, and uninterruptable power supplies.

Avago’s ACPL-312U provides reinforced insulation and reliability that delivers safe signal isolation which is critical in automotive and high temperature industrial applications. The low-power ACPL-312U optocoupler series has been designed with under voltage lock-out protection (UVLO), high common mode rejection (CMR) performance and high speed response to improve efficiency. Moreover, it is developed with a double wire bonding process to provide added redundancy and reduce wire breakage during high temperature operation. Additionally, the low 5mA maximum supply current of this series of optocouplers allows bootstrap operation and reduces IC power consumption. As a result, costly isolated power supplies or DC-to-DC converters can be reduced when these gate drive optocouplers are used.

Avago’s series of 2.5A gate drive optocouplers contain an AIGaAs LED, which is optically coupled to an integrated circuit with a power output stage. The high operating voltage range of the output stage provides the drive voltages required by gate controlled devices. Moreover, the voltage and current supplied by these optocouplers are ideal for directly driving IGBTs with ratings up to 1200 V/100 Amps. For IGBTs with higher ratings, this series of optocouplers can be used to drive a discrete power stage which drives the IGBT gate.

The ACPL-312U series of optocouplers come in a standard DIP-8 package with a creepage of 7.4 mm and clearance of 7.1 mm. These DIP-8 packages are compliant to most industrial safety standards such as IEC/EN/DIN EN 60747-5-5, UL 1577 and CSA.

Features and Benefits:

Extended operating temperature: -40 to 125-degrees C;

High speed response for improved efficiency;

High CMR to prevent erroneous driving of IGBT to ensure reliable operation under noisy environments;

Bootstrappable supply current and low power consumption reduces the number of a costly isolated power supplies or DC- to-DC converters;

0.5V maximum low level output voltage eliminates need for negative gate drive.

Pricing and Availability:

Avago’s ACPL-312U extended temperature 2.5A gate drive optocouplers are priced at $2.03 in 10,000 piece quantities, and are available now through company’s direct sales channel and worldwide distribution partners.

Avago is a US-based supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications.