FYRE - Jet Flener: Comparison of Rise Times across Different Optocouplers and Pull-Up Resistors for Designing a Level Shifter
Congratulations to Jet Flener for successfully completing the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program. He presented his research at the poster ceremony entitled "Comparison of Rise Times across Different Optocouplers and Pull-Up Resistors for Designing a Level Shifter". Jet is an honors electrical and computer engineering undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma. You can view a copy of his poster as a PDF through this link. I look forward to fabricating the circuit board he designed in this project based on the observations made in the lab.
Abstract
Optocouplers are integrated circuits (IC) that use light to transmit data. In our case, they can be used to build low-voltage level shifters that translate signals between 12V sensors and Raspberry Pi 3.3V logic at high speeds without forming a physical connection and maintaining a low cost. We initially assumed that the specific IC used wouldn’t have a noticeable effect on the data transfer rate and that the pull-up resistor instead would control the rise time. After testing six different ICs with three common resistor values, we found that although the resistance level did have a noticeable impact on the speed, the specific IC used seemed to make the largest difference, so we separated them into three classes. From this we found that cost was not an indicator of a chip’s performance, but the technology inside was.
URL slug: fyre-poster-jet-flener
Originally published: 2024-05-02 12:00:00
Content last regnerated: 2025-05-20 15:00:32
