Safety agencies require user-accessible signals for power supplies to be isolated from power supply referenced signals. This infers that these power supplies must provide a means for information, such as power supply status or enable/disable commands, to pass safely across the isolation barrier. Common methods for this are to use opto-couplers or isolation transformers. These methods work well and are easy solutions when there are few communication lines. But, these solutions become cumbersome for a large number of lines. In applications where there are many communication signals, a more elegant solution is to digitize these signals and transmit and receive the information via an isolated serial link.
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