System for measuring a parameter inside an adverse environment while protecting the adverse environment against potentially dangerous threats with an active safety barrier circuit

Abstract

An active safety barrier circuit is disposable in series with an electrical conductor at a barrier between an adverse environment and an outside environment for passing an analog signal over the electrical conductor across the barrier while preventing potentially dangerous electrical threats from entering the adverse environment over the electrical conductor. The safety barrier circuit comprises: an analog-to-digital converter circuit for converting sequential time samples of the analog signal to a train of electrical digitally coded words which are output sequentially from the analog-to-digital converter circuit; an optical isolator for converting the electrical digitally coded words into light signals which are passed across an electrically non-conductive barrier which prevents potentially dangerous electrical threats from entering the adverse environment over the electrical conductor, and for reconverting the light signals back into the electrical digitally coded words after crossing the non-conductive barrier, the reconverted electrical digitally coded words being output sequentially from the optical isolator; and a digital-to-analog converter circuit for reconstructing the analog signal from the reconverted electrical digitally coded words being received sequentially from the optical isolator without affecting substantially the accuracy thereof.