Digital isolators are used in a breadth of applications, mainly for system robustness against high voltage stresses, surge protection and noise isolation.

Specifically, TI's digital isolators employ silicon dioxide (SiO₂) dielectric, which offers best-in-class isolation performance. Figure 1-1 illustrates the cross section of TI's isolation technology.

Figure 1-1 Cross Section View for TI's Silicon Dioxide-Based Isolators

TI's basic and reinforced isolators are certified as per standard bodies and undergo thorough testing to ensure compliance to safety certifications. Generally, safety certified digital isolators are available in industry standard SSOP or SOIC packages with at least >3.7mm creepage. In terms of their isolation performances, margins on the time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) performance and device lifetimes are taken to ensure superior system safety and certification compliance.

Some of the key applications that heavily use digital isolator are mentioned below :

• High-speed Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) isolation in Factory automation
• Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal isolation from digital controller to gate-driver or Power FET's in various power supply topologies
• High-speed communication signal isolation across isolated programmable cards in semiconductor test