Application Note AN-1017

The PVI - a New Versatile Circuit Element

Table of Contents

Page
The Function Basics.............................................................................1
Mechanical Specifications ....................................................................2
How It Works........................................................................................2
Applications..........................................................................................3
General ................................................................................................3
A High-side Switch ...............................................................................4
The AC Switch .....................................................................................4
The Low Power Latch ..........................................................................4
A Current Direction Detector ................................................................4
A Miniature AC to DC Power Supply ....................................................4
A Bridge Driver.....................................................................................5
Conclusion ...........................................................................................5

The PhotoVoltaic Isolator (PVI), from International Rectifier, is a revolutionary component that can simplify
many existing circuits, allow the creation of new designs, and achieve miniaturization and cost reduction.
This article will explain the internal workings of the device, discuss its characteristics and give some
application examples.

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APPLICATION NOTE
International Rectifier • 233 Kansas Street, El Segundo, CA 90245
AN-1017 revB
z USA

The PVI - a New Versatile Circuit Element

The PhotoVoltaic Isolator (PVI), from International
Rectifier, is a revolutionary component that can
simplify many existing circuits, allow the creation
of new designs, and achieve miniaturization and
cost reduction.
This article will explain the internal workings of the
device, discuss its characteristics and give some
application examples.
From this starting point the circuit designer will
soon realize the further application potential of this
new technology component and turn imaginative
designs into practical solutions.

The Function Basics

In the simplest terms, the PVI is an isolated 5V
source powered by a LED, all in an 8-pin dual-in-
line package; of course there’s more to it than
that, but just think for a moment how this function
could be achieved with “traditional” components.

• An oscillator, transformer, rectifier solution, prob- • A charge pump solution; this would need a
ably 6 or 7 components, slow to start up, radiating switching component, diodes and storage capaci-
electrical noise and acoustic noise from the trans- tors, but the produced voltage would not be float-
former, output filtering required to remove the AC ing nor would it be easily controlled.
content, maybe 15 or 20 solder joints, etc., cer-
tainly larger than an 8-pin DIP and also costly to • A battery solution; fine , if you need a fixed float-
assemble
ing voltage for a limited time, but how could it be
recharged, and how could it be varied? Another
• An extra transformer winding solution; it has to photo coupler/transformer link is required to con-
be built into the transformer from the start reduc- trol the load connected to the battery.
ing the winding window for the main power wind-
ings, it would still need rectifier and smoothing All of these solutions are considerably more com-
components to product DC; but would the extra plex than using a single PVI device since it provides
winding achieve 2500V AC isolation and how in one package a floating variable and controllable
would you control the DC - probably by a photo DC source with only four connections, all in a vol-
coupler! Yet more components and complications. ume of 0.25 cubic centimeters!

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Application Notes high output stability Gallium-Aluminium-Arsenide
light-emitting diode and moulded within a clear
plastic optical cavity to produce an efficient trans-
This new technology device can be considered
fer of infrared energy from the LED to the photo-
as a building block in any of the following types of
voltaic pile. This subassembly is then further plastic
applications:
moulded to exclude ambient light, the finished
package is the standard 8-pin dual in-line as shown
It is a miniature source of 5V
in Fig. 1.
It is a floating bias supply
+
It is an optocoupler 3 5
It is a signal isolator Ig r
I1
It is a linear current transformer
It is a DC to DC transformer λ D
It is a Solid State Relay driver Cg
D1-
It is an I/O interface L1
D10

It is a versatile component that enables a whole

R
new approach to circuit designs, allowing previ- 8
2 C1
ously complex circuits to be banished forever.
Typical values for PVI5080N
Mechanical Specifications I1 = 20mA Ig = I1/1000
Ig = 20µA Cg = 100pF
r = 30kΩ C1 = 1pF at 2500V AC
R = 2 MΩ D = Depletion-mode
MOSFET

Figure 2. PVI Equivalent Circuit

Although the photovoltaic cells can generate

around 5V, they are really quite small and have a
limited current generating capability. A better un-
derstanding of the PVI’s characteristics is obtained
by examining the equivalent circuit shown in Fig.
2. The input current l1 is converted to infrared ra-
diation by the LED L1. This radiation is optically
directed to the surface of the photocells to gener-
ate a current lg which is directly proportional to
the incident energy. The physical, electrical and
mechanical arrangements determine the current
transfer ratio at about 1000:1 (approximately lin-
ear, but does have negative temperature coeffi-
cient).
Unfortunately, in any photocell, the current source
is shunted by the diode-like forward characteris-
01-2013 00 tics of its own elements, this is represented by the
(MS-001AB) series string of 10 diode junctions D1 to D10 in
parallel with the current source, it is these that limit
Fig. 1. Dual-in-Line Package the maximum output voltage to around 6V and also
introduce a negative temperature coefficient for
the output voltage. These diodes have a total bulk
How It Works slope resistance “r”, and because of surface leak-
age across the photocell array and diodes as well
The heart of the PVI is a miniature array of silicon as through the package, there is a parallel resis-
photo cells, that are positioned about 1mm from a tor “R”. The coupling capacitance between L1 and

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the photovoltaic array is only 1pF, and the dielec-
tric can withstand at least 2500V AC.

The photocell structure has an inherent self ca-

pacitance, this is represented by Cg and does, to
some extent, limit the minimum switching times
achievable, but as we shall see later, quite respect-
able turn-on and turn-off times or the order of 220
microseconds can be achieved, although this does
depend on the load resistance and capacitance.
Typical output characteristic are shown in Fig. 3,
Figure 4. Simplified PVI
the short circuit current has a temperature coeffi-
cient of -0.66%/K and the maximum output volt-
age a -0.35%/K temperature coefficient. General
8 40
The output power of the PVI is about 50 micro watts, so
Open Circuit Voltage
7 35
Output Short Circuit Current (µA) the load has to be chosen carefully, but like any other
building block, they can be interconnected to give an
Output Voltage (VDC)

6
RL=10MΩ
30 enhanced signal, for example the nominal 5V can be
increased to 10, 15, 20, 25, etc., by connecting parts in
5 25
RL=4.7MΩ
series, and the nominal 8 micro amps output current can
4 20
be increased by parallel connection.
RL=2.2MΩ
3 15 The output characteristics of the PVI are ideally suited to
RL=1MΩ driving the gate of the power MOSFETS, indeed it is the
2 10
marriage of these two components which will produce
Short Circuit Current
1 5
the most popular and wise spread range of applications.

0 0 Since the gate of a MOSFET is mainly capacitance, this

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
in conjunction with the PVI source impedance will
Input Current (mA) determine the achievable switching times, for example
the popular IRF620 (rated at 200V and 5A) has a gate
Figure 3. PVI5080N Typical Output Characteristics capacitance of 600pF, and a simple calculation shows
that this will be charged to 5V by 20 micro amps in 150
micro seconds quite a respectable switch-on time.
To simplify the application examples, we shall
Switch-off speeds will typically be less than 200
show the PVI as just a variable voltage source
microseconds and is dependant on the size of the
as in Fig. 4, but remember it has a significantly MOSFET being used. Internal “fast-turn-off” circuitry uses
high source impedance of about 500K ohm. a resistor and normally-closed MOSFET combination to
accomplish relatively fast-turn-off switching speeds.
Applications

As this is a new type of device, there are no +

D
established or well known “traditional” appli-
cations, but once the novel features of the PVI
PVI
are understood, the circuit designer will real- 270Ω
ize the simple solutions that it can offer, so to
5V ~
~
trigger the imagination here is a general dis-
cussion and some application examples.
LOAD

Figure 5. High Side Switch

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A Highside Switch +
To efficiently drive a MOSFET in the positive rail of a
power supply, it needs a gate voltage higher than that
positive rail, the PVI can provide the additional voltage
and at the same time isolate the control current to allow
a more versatile signal source, the circuit is shown in Fig.

~
~
5. The PVI generates a floating voltage which is applied
between gate and source. The much lower on resistance
of the fully enhanced MOSFET considerably reduces the
losses.

The control signal and the load circuit do not need a C

+
common connection, they can be separated by up to
2500V AC., making this configuration useable as a general
purpose DC Solid State Relay.

The AC Switch
Figure 7. A Sensitive Latch / GTO
This is a compact, efficient and cost effective solution to
controlling AC currents from a logic level signal, Fig. 6
shows the simple arrangement, the on-losses are lower
than you much expect because the MOSFETS are also
enhanced in their reverse direction to bypass the inherent A Current Direction Detector
drain-source diode. The PVI provides 2500V AC isolation
between the control and AC supplies, the load capabilities Fig. 8 shows a circuit that can control two separate loads
are determined by the MOSFET used. This circuit has depending on the direction of current flow in the path
the advantage of simplicity and ease to be matched to being monitored, the operation of the circuit is self
the application requirements. explanatory but notice that the LED arrangement means
that the “OR” function is built-in to the design, i.e., only
one load can be activated at any one time.
AC

TEST PATH
LOAD 1 LOAD 2

~
~

~
~ ~
~
Figure 6. An AC Switch

The Low Power Latch

Figure 8. A Current Direction Detector
The sensitivity voltage controlled attributes of a MOSFET
and the characteristics of a PVI can be combined to
produce a voltage triggered device with the latching A Miniature AC to DC Power Supply
characteristics of a thyristor as shown in Fig. 7. The trigger
source momentarily makes the transistor conduct, the To float charge small batteries, to power LCD displays
resultant current through the LED (50mA max.) activates and smoke detectors, or feed an AC derived signal to a
the PVI output which takes over supplying the gate and microprocessor a very compact isolated 5 or 10V DC
maintains the MOSFET on. To switch the device off, a supply can be produced from an AC line. Fig. 9 shows
negative pulse can be applied to the gate in the same the circuit arrangement with the two 5V sources in series,
manner as a Gate-Turn-off-Thyristor. but they could also be in parallel to give a higher current.
Because of the input current-to-output voltage
characteristic of the PVI, the output has a built-in inherent
voltage regulation, the output changing by less than 10%
when the AC supply goes from 240V to 24V, this useful

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 +

PVI + + PVI
Forward Reverse
~
~ ~
~
LOAD

PVI + + PVI

~
~ ~
~
Figure 9. An AC/DC Power Supply

feature increases the range of application for a single

functional building block in I/O systems. Figure 10. Bridge Drive Circuit

A Bridge Driver Conclusion

A perpetual problem with the bridge circuit used to reverse The PVI5080N is designed to match the gate
the direction of a DC motor or control an AC motor, has characteristics of logic level MOSFETS as illustrated in
been coupling the control signals to the switching this article. The PVI1050N unit is also available, which
elements connected to the positive supply rail. If a has a dual 5V output. These outputs can be series
combination of N-channel and P-channel MOSFETS are connected to drive the gates of standard power
used then signals referenced to the positive and negative MOSFETS. This single 8-pin DIP PVI1050N can also be
rails are required, this can deteriorate the noise immunity used with logic level MOSFETS in applications requiring
and make start up and signal processing difficult. By using dual outputs such as Fig. 10.
P-channel MOSFETS the design voltages must be kept
low as P-channel devices are not available over 200V. The applications for the PVI are varied yet simple, and
are spread across the whole spectrum of electronic/
An alternative configuration is to use all N-channel (higher electrical design as these examples demonstrate. Could
voltages available) but this introduces another complexity, you use the PVI in an audio amplifier to simplify the
the gate drive signals are referenced to the sources and design? Or could an ultra efficient synchronous rectifier
these follow the output voltage supplied to the load, so circuit be designed using PVI’s?
for a single phase drive, two floating DC supplies are
needed with isolated signal coupling (photo couplers) to Further designs and circuits incorporating the new
the control signals, and the complexities start to technology/new function PVI, are limited only by your
accumulate. imagination to achieve innovative, efficient and
economical solutions to those troublesome circuit
International Rectifier manufactures an integrated circuit problems - and we are always interested in feedback from
(the IR2110) which goes a long way to solving many of our customers, so if you are proud of your application
these bridge driving problems but still has certain please phone us or write with the details.
limitations, for example it is limited to under 500V DC rail
application, it needs continual refresh of the high side
floating supply which it derives from the output
semiconductor switches using a bootstrap technique, thus
is not appropriate for steady state directional control of a
DC motor.

The PVI offers a simple solution to low frequency bridge

driver requirements, it is its own floating bias supply, it is
isolated to 2500V AC, it can be driven from a single 5V
supply, etc. The circuit is shown in Fig. 10, the signals for
each LED can be connected in various configurations to
suit the control signals available, an even simpler design
can omit the bottom two PVI devices and the gates driven
directly from the control signals.

The same general arrangement of PVI-MOSFET can be

used for 3-phase and 4-phase drives, used typically for
inverters and stepper motors. IR WORLD HEADQUARTERS:
233 Kansas St., El Segundo, California 90245 Tel: (310) 252-7105
Data and specifications subject to change without notice. 10/7/2005

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