THE OPTICAL COUPLING OF ANALOG-SIGNALS

An opto-coupling circuit based on the Siemens IL300 linear optocoupler and the methods to assess its static and dynamic performances are pre sented. It is shown that IL300, due to its built-in linearizing feedba ck photodiode, makes it possible to build coupling schemes that associ ate good linearity with the inherent properties of optical devices, as true galvanic isolation, high isolation voltage and transmission down to de. The integral linearity, 0.029%, obtained on the coupling of ty pical nuclear spectroscopy pulses makes us believe that traditional ca pacitive coupling used in nuclear spectroscopy circuits can be replace d by optical coupling in the near future.