Nexperia introduces the best-in-class portfolio of I2C GPIO Expanders

Nexperia introduced a new portfolio of 16-channel I2C general-purpose input-output (GPIO) expanders designed to increase flexibility and reuse in electronic systems. The portfolio provides an elegant solution when additional I/Os are needed while keeping the interconnections to a minimum. Enabling design engineers to add new features without increasing PCB design complexity and bill of material. It includes the NCA9595, the industry’s first GPIO expander to feature a register configurable internal pull-up resistor to enable customized power optimization.

The number of sensor signals which require monitoring by a microcontroller continues to increase in line with the growth of the servers, automotive, industrial, medical and internet of things (IoT), as does the number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used as system status indicators. Microcontrollers are designed with limited numbers of GPIO ports, many are used internally within a system, leaving only a small number of IOs available to connect to sensors or LEDs. With this limitation, I2C GPIO provides an additional 128 I/O channels.

Nexperia’s I2C GPIO portfolio also includes the NCA9535, NCA9539, NCA9555 and NCA9595 devices. These parts have been designed in pin-to-pin compatible packages with industry-standard footprints (TSSOP24 and HWQFN24) to offer a cost-effective and flexible solution for expanding the number of parallel IOs in an electronic system (more info).