Risk-free debugging with iSYSTEM Galvanic Isolation Adapters

Preventing personal injury and electrical damage to both development equipment and target

Developing and testing embedded systems means working with a live target system which is under the power. For embedded designs which feature high-voltage circuits like Automotive battery management systems, iSYSTEM offers a series of Galvanic Isolation Adapters which prevent developers from personal injury and equipment from electrical damage without affecting signal integrity.

Fig. 1: iSYSTEM Galvanic Isolation Adapters protect developers and development equipment

Galvanic isolation is required where two or more electric circuits communicate with each other, but their grounds may be at different potentials. It is an effective method of breaking ground loops between the different circuits, preventing unwanted current from flowing between the two units sharing a ground conductor. Galvanic isolation is also important for safety reasons, preventing accidental current from reaching ground through a person's body.

The iSYSTEM Galvanic Isolation Adapters are being interposed as electrical isolation between development equipment like a development PC on one side and on the other side, e.g., the iC5700 BlueBox debugger and the target microcontroller. The BlueBox and the embedded target are separately powered and isolated from each other. The Galvanic isolation adapters are powered separately as well via a USB-C Power supply adapter. 

The adapters provide a basic isolation that withstands high voltages. However, when dealing with potentially hazardous voltages it is mandatory to have a second protection measure in place, in case the first insulation barrier fails.

The Galvanic Isolation Adapters are available for Infineon AURIX™, ARM® Cortex™ and NXP / STMicroelectronics Power Architecture® MCUs.