Nexperia announced the launch of a new 16-channel I2C Universal Input/Output (GPIO) extender portfolio designed to improve the flexibility and reuse of electronic systems. One of the GPIO extenders, the NCA9595, has an internal pull-up resistor that can be configured via registers, which can be customized to optimize power consumption. When it is necessary to expand the amount of I/O, this product portfolio enables a clean design while minimizing interconnection. This helps design engineers add new features without increasing PCB design complexity and material costs. Unlike rival GPIO extenders, the NCA9595 has an internal pull-up resistor that can be configured via registers, eliminating the need for an external pull-up resistor (saving board space and cost), and enabling power optimization as required by the customer
With the growth of servers, automotive, industrial, medical, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of sensor signals that need to be monitored by microcontrollers continues to increase, so does the number of light-emitting diodes (leds) used as indicators of system status. In microcontroller designs, there is a limited number of GPIO ports, with many for internal system use, leaving only a small amount of I/O to connect sensors or leds. To solve this problem, I2C GPIO provides an additional 128 I/O channels.
The Nexperia I2C 16bits GPIO portfolio also includes NCA9535, NCA9539, NCA9555 and NCA9595 devices. These devices come in pin-compatible industry-standard packages (TSSOP24 and HWQFN24) that allow for the flexibility to scale the amount of parallel I/O in electronic systems, cost effectively and efficiently. The device models and characteristics of this series are described below:
It is worth noting that all devices in the portfolio have additional application features and advantages compared to similar competitor devices -- standby current of 2.5uA (28% lower than competitor devices), output capacitance of 4.5pF (45% lower than competitor devices), propagation delay of 280 ns (6% faster than competitor devices), and lower power consumption. GPIO to I2C (including the opposite direction) responds faster. All devices operate in the voltage range of 1.65V to 5.5V and in the temperature range of -40°C to +85°C and -40°C to +125°C.
