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In electronics, an opto-isolator (or optical isolator, optocoupler or photocoupler) is a device that uses a short optical transmission path to transfer a signal between elements of a circuit, typically a transmitter and a receiver, while keeping them electrically isolated — since the signal goes from an electrical signal to an optical signal back to an electrical signal, electrical contact along the path is broken.
A common implementation involves an LED and a light sensor, separated so that light may travel across a barrier but electrical current may not. When an electrical signal is applied to the input of the opto-isolator, its LED lights, its light sensor then activates, and a corresponding electrical signal is generated at the output. Unlike a transformer, the opto-isolator allows for DC coupling and generally provides significant protection from serious overvoltage conditions in one circuit affecting the other.
With a photodiode as the detector, the output current is proportional to the amount of incident light supplied by the emitter. The diode can be used in a photovoltaic mode or a photoconductive mode.
In photovoltaic mode, the diode acts like a current source in parallel with a forward-biased diode. The output current and voltage are dependent on the load impedance and light intensity.
In photoconductive mode, the diode is connected to a supply voltage, and the magnitude of the current conducted is directly proportional to the intensity of light.
An opto-isolator can also be constructed using a small incandescent lamp in place of the LED; such a device, because the lamp has a much slower response time than an LED, will filter out noise or half-wave power in the input signal. In so doing, it will also filter out any audio- or higher-frequency signals in the input. It has the further disadvantage, of course, (an overwhelming disadvantage in most applications) that incandescent lamps have finite life spans. Thus, such an unconventional device is of extremely limited usefulness, suitable only for applications such as science projects.
The optical path may be air or a dielectric waveguide. The transmitting and receiving elements of an optical isolator may be contained within a single compact module, for mounting, for example, on a circuit board; in this case, the module is often called an optoisolator or opto-isolator. The photosensor may be a photocell, phototransistor, or an optically-triggered SCR or Triac. Occasionally, this device will in turn operate a power relay or contactor.
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