General-purpose I/O (GPIO) expanders provide 4, 8, 16, 24, or 40 general-purpose I/O pins for the CPU via the I²C bus or SPI bus. They help designers reduce board space and complexity. This arrangement also simplifies software development and lowers overall system costs. The I/O feature set enables designers to configure the GPIO to optimize performance for their end applications. It includes features that eliminate external components, such as pull-up resistors, open-drain outputs, output drive control, and input latches, allowing for faster software development and more robust firmware performance. These GPIOs can be used in various applications such as keyboards, I/O expansion, driving LEDs, and signal monitoring.
NXP supports low-voltage (LV) GPIOs with Agile I/O, which expands the two wires of the I²C bus or four wires of the SPI bus into general-purpose I/O pins. The number of I/O pins and features like Reset and Interrupt differentiates devices in the LV GPIO family. The advanced features of Agile I/O include interrupt masking, interrupt status, selectable input latches, and other standard features. Users can optimize their applications by configuring the registers by setting each channel to be an input or output and leveraging Agile I/O features (output port configuration, interrupt status, bit-wise I/O programming, and switch debounce).
As a global industrial automation and electronic component supplier, element14 offers a full range of NXP I/O expanders, including various general-purpose I/O devices such as PCAL9714, PCAL9722, PCA9555A, PCA9539A, PCA9557, PCA9536, PCA9535, and PCA9570. GPIOs offering low-voltage translation (VLT) include PCAL6408A, PCAL6416A, and PCAL6524.
Highlighted products include PCA9570 (4-bit), a tiny package with low power consumption. PCAL6408A (8-bit) and PCAL6416A (16-bit) offer ultra-low power consumption and small packages with “Agile” I/O features like latchable inputs and programmable I/O. PCA9539 is a 16-bit I²C bus and SMBus low-power I/O port with interrupt and reset. PCA9703 is a 16-bit, 18-V tolerant SPI GPI with a maskable interrupt (INT). PCA9555A (16-bit) is a low-power device with various package options, fully backward compatible with PCA9555. It operates from 1.65 V to 5.50 V. PCAL6524 (24-bit) supports ultra-low voltage operation down to 0.8 V and includes “Agile” I/O features. PCA9698 is a 40-bit I/O expander offering flexibility and support for 1 MHz I²C bus operation.
The AEC-Q100 Qualified GPIOs are designed for high reliability and low power consumption. They are available with I²C or SPI bus interfaces and have an extended operating temperature range of up to 125 °C, meeting AEC-Q100 automotive-compliant qualifications. Automotive GPIOs include PCAL9714HN/Q900, PCAL9722HN/Q900, PCA9538PW/Q900, PCA9539PW/Q900, PCA9703PW/Q900, and PCA9704PW/Q900. These devices offer ultra-low voltage I/O expansion and translation features, SMBus low-power I/O ports with interrupt and reset, and 18 V tolerant SPI GPI with a maskable interrupt (INT).
