Nexperia launches advanced I2C GPIO expander portfolio

Innovative configurable pull-up resistors and pin-compatible packages

Nijmegen, April 28, 2023: Nexperia, the expert in high-volume production of essential semiconductor devices, today announced a new portfolio of 16-channel I2C general-purpose input and output (GPIO) expanders designed to increase flexibility and reuse in electronic systems. One of the GPIO expanders, the NCA9595, features register-configurable internal pull-up resistors that can be customized to optimize power consumption as needed. The portfolio enables a simple design with minimal interconnects when the number of I/Os needs to be expanded. This helps design engineers add new functionality without increasing PCB design complexity and bill of materials costs.

With the development of servers, automobiles, industry, medical and the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of sensor signals that need to be monitored by microcontrollers continues to increase, so the number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used as system status indicators has also increased accordingly. In microcontroller design, the number of GPIO ports is limited, and many ports are used internally by the system, leaving only a few I/Os for connecting sensors or LEDs. To address this problem, the use of I2C GPIO can provide an additional 128 I/O channels .

The Nexperia I2C 16bits GPIO portfolio also includes the NCA9535, NCA9539, NCA9555 and NCA9595 devices. These devices are available in pin-compatible industry standard packages (TSSOP24 and HWQFN24), which can flexibly expand the number of parallel I/Os in electronic systems, economically and efficiently. The device models and their features are described below:

The NCA9595 differs from competing GPIO expanders in that it has an internal register-configurable pull-up resistor, eliminating the need for external pull-up resistors (saving board space and cost) and enabling power consumption optimization based on customer requirements.

It is worth noting that all devices in the portfolio have additional application features and advantages compared to similar competitive devices - standby current is 2.5 uA (28% lower than competitors), output capacitance is 4.5 pF (45% lower than competitors) , propagation delay is 280 ns (6% faster than competitors), lower power consumption, and faster GPIO to I2C (including reverse direction) response time . All devices operate in the voltage range of 1.65 V to 5.5 V and the operating temperature range is -40°C to +85°C and -40°C to +125°C.

Learn more about Nexperia's GPIO expander portfolio.