Serial communication interfaces are commonly used to transmit and receive data between two or more devices in industrial and automotive systems. For digital applications, common interface types used in short distance, intra-board communication are UART, SPI, and I2C. When used in these applications, traditional optocouplers tend to limit data throughput due to low data rate capabilities and high propagation delays.

TI's digital opto-emulator devices like ISOM8710 and ISOM8711 feature high data-transmission rates and can be used to create isolated, high-speed communication systems to reliably transmit SPI, UART, I2C, and I/O signals between controller devices, like MCUs and FPGAs, and peripheral devices like sensors, data converters, and other controllers in separate voltage domains. When paired with transceiver devices, ISOM871x devices can also be used to complete isolated interface designs, such as for CAN and RS-485, as shown in Figure 4-2 and Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-2 Isolated CAN Application Using ISOM8710

Figure 4-3 Isolated RS-485 Application Using ISOM8710