Intrinsically safe galvanically isolated barrier device and method thereof

摘要

A system and method for providing an intrinsically safe (IS) galvanically isolated barrier device. An IS barrier device provides IS galvanic isolation between a non-IS system and an IS system using a two-stage approach. In the first stage, a non-galvanically isolated IS barrier limits energy of electrical transmissions received from the non-IS system to convert such electrical transmissions into IS transmissions. In the second stage, the IS transmissions are transmitted through a galvanic isolator to the IS system to galvanically isolate the IS system from the non-IS system. A digital monolithic isolator cannot be IS certified to be the single bridge between IS and non-IS systems, however, it can be used in a certifiable fashion to isolate between IS systems. When used in conjunction with a non-galvanic IS barrier that is capable meeting the IS certification as non-IS to IS barrier, a digital monolithic isolator can be used to implement the galvanic isolator such that high speed, low cost galvanic isolation is possible. Such a galvanically isolated barrier device can be used to implement an IS galvanically isolated high speed communication bus for sample system control.