Capacitive, optical, and inductive isolation technologies are design principles that have been around since the beginning of modern electronics. While devices such as capacitors and inductors serve a variety of functions within an electronic device, they, along with optoelectronics, also can be used to isolate circuits from each other.
As new applications arise and others evolve, such as factory automation, motor drives, grid infrastructure, energy, and electric vehicles (EVs), the ability to isolate circuits becomes critical due to the high-voltage components of these applications. Isolating these high-voltage circuits from the low-voltage circuits, which are oftentimes digital (e.g., voltage- and current-sensing communication and signal processing) becomes paramount. It’s also critical to ensure that users are completely isolated from those high voltages.