PCA9538A
Low-voltage 8-bit I
2
C-bus I/O port with interrupt and reset
Rev. 1 — 28 September 2012
Product data sheet
1. General description
The PCA9538A is a low-voltage 8-bit General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) expander
with interrupt and reset for I
2
C-bus/SMBus applications. NXP I/O expanders provide a
simple solution when additional I/Os are needed while keeping interconnections to a
minimum, for example, in ACPI power switches, sensors, push buttons, LEDs, fan control,
etc.
In addition to providing a flexible set of GPIOs, the wide V
DD
range of 1.65 V to 5.5 V
allows the PCA9538A to interface with next-generation microprocessors and
microcontrollers where supply levels are dropping down to conserve power.
The PCA9538A contains the PCA9538A register set of four 8-bit Configuration, Input,
Output, and Polarity Inversion registers.
The PCA9538A is a pin-to-pin replacement for the PCA9538 and other industry-standard
devices. A more fully functional device, the PCAL9538A, is available with Agile I/O
features. See the respective data sheet for more details.
The PCA9538A open-drain interrupt (INT) output is activated when any input state differs
from its corresponding Input Port register state and is used to indicate to the system
master that an input state has changed.
INT can be connected to the interrupt input of a microcontroller. By sending an interrupt
signal on this line, the remote I/O can inform the microcontroller if there is incoming data
on its ports without having to communicate via the I
2
C-bus. Thus, the PCA9538A can
remain a simple slave device.
The device outputs have 25 mA sink capabilities for directly driving LEDs while consuming
low device current.
The power-on reset sets the registers to their default values and initializes the device state
machine. In the PCA9538A, the RESET pin causes the same reset/default I/O input
configuration to occur without de-powering the device, holding the registers and I
2
C-bus
state machine in their default state until the RESET input is once again HIGH. This input
requires a pull-up to V
DD
.
Two hardware pins (A0, A1) select the fixed I
2
C-bus address and allow up to four devices
to share the same I
2
C-bus/SMBus.
NXP Semiconductors
PCA9538A
Low-voltage 8-bit I
2
C-bus I/O port with interrupt and reset
2. Features and benefits
I
2
C-bus to parallel port expander
Operating power supply voltage range of 1.65 V to 5.5 V
Low standby current consumption:
1.5
A
(typical at 5 V V
DD
)
1.0
A
(typical at 3.3 V V
DD
)
Schmitt-trigger action allows slow input transition and better switching noise immunity
at the SCL and SDA inputs
V
hys
= 0.10
V
DD
(typical)
5 V tolerant I/Os
Active LOW reset input (RESET)
Open-drain active LOW interrupt output (INT)
400 kHz Fast-mode I
2
C-bus
Internal power-on reset
Power-up with all channels configured as inputs
No glitch on power-up
Latched outputs with 25 mA drive maximum capability for directly driving LEDs
Latch-up performance exceeds 100 mA per JESD78, Class II
ESD protection exceeds JESD22
2000 V Human Body Model (A114-A)
1000 V Charged-Device Model (C101)
Packages offered: TSSOP16 and HVQFN16
3. Ordering information
Table 1.
Ordering information
Topside
mark
P3A
PA9538A
Package
Name
HVQFN16
TSSOP16
Description
plastic thermal enhanced very thin quad flat package;
no leads; 16 terminals; body 3
3
0.85 mm
plastic thin shrink small outline package; 16 leads;
body width 4.4 mm
Version
SOT758-1
SOT403-1
Type number
PCA9538ABS
PCA9538APW
3.1 Ordering options
Table 2.
Ordering options
Orderable
part number
PCA9538ABSHP
PCA9538APWJ
Package
HVQFN16
TSSOP16
Packing method
Reel pack, SMD,
13-inch, Turned
Reel pack, SMD,
13-inch
Minimum
order quantity
6000
2500
Temperature
T
amb
=
40 C
to +85
C
T
amb
=
40 C
to +85
C
Type number
PCA9538ABS
PCA9538APW
PCA9538A
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP B.V. 2012. All rights reserved.
Product data sheet
Rev. 1 — 28 September 2012
2 of 37
NXP Semiconductors
PCA9538A
Low-voltage 8-bit I
2
C-bus I/O port with interrupt and reset
4. Block diagram
A0
A1
SCL
SDA
INPUT
FILTER
I
2
C-BUS/SMBus
CONTROL
8-bit
INPUT/
OUTPUT
PORTS
write pulse
read pulse
V
DD
RESET
P0
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
V
DD
POWER-ON
RESET
V
SS
PCA9538A
LP
FILTER
002aah416
INT
Remark:
All I/Os are set to inputs at reset.
Fig 1.
Block diagram of PCA9538A
PCA9538A
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP B.V. 2012. All rights reserved.
Product data sheet
Rev. 1 — 28 September 2012
3 of 37
NXP Semiconductors
PCA9538A
Low-voltage 8-bit I
2
C-bus I/O port with interrupt and reset
5. Pinning information
5.1 Pinning
terminal 1
index area
13 SDA
12 SCL
11 INT
10 P7
9
5
6
7
8
P6
P5
14 V
DD
P4
16 A1
1
2
3
4
P3
A0
A1
RESET
P0
P1
P2
P3
V
SS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
002aah417
16 V
DD
15 SDA
14 SCL
13 INT
12 P7
11 P6
10 P5
9
P4
RESET
P0
P1
P2
PCA9538ABS
PCA9538APW
V
SS
15 A0
002aah419
Transparent top view
Fig 2.
Pin configuration for TSSOP16
Fig 3.
Pin configuration for HVQFN16
5.2 Pin description
Table 3.
Symbol
A0
A1
RESET
P0
[1]
P1
[1]
P2
[1]
P3
[1]
V
SS
P4
[1]
P5
[1]
P6
[1]
P7
[1]
INT
SCL
SDA
V
DD
[1]
[2]
Pin description
Pin
TSSOP16
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
HVQFN16
15
16
1
2
3
4
5
6
[2]
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
address input 0
address input 1
active LOW reset input
Port P input/output 0
Port P input/output 1
Port P input/output 2
Port P input/output 3
supply ground
Port P input/output 4
Port P input/output 5
Port P input/output 6
Port P input/output 7
interrupt output (open-drain)
serial clock line
serial data line
supply voltage
Description
All I/O are configured as input at power-on.
HVQFN16 package die supply ground is connected to both the V
SS
pin and the exposed center pad. The
V
SS
pin must be connected to supply ground for proper device operation. For enhanced thermal, electrical,
and board-level performance, the exposed pad needs to be soldered to the board using a corresponding
thermal pad on the board, and for proper heat conduction through the board thermal vias need to be
incorporated in the printed-circuit board in the thermal pad region.
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP B.V. 2012. All rights reserved.
PCA9538A
Product data sheet
Rev. 1 — 28 September 2012
4 of 37
NXP Semiconductors
PCA9538A
Low-voltage 8-bit I
2
C-bus I/O port with interrupt and reset
6. Functional description
Refer to
Figure 1 “Block diagram of PCA9538A”.
6.1 Device address
slave address
1
1
1
fixed
0
0
A1
A0 R/W
hardware
selectable
002aae707
Fig 4.
PCA9538A address
A1 and A0 are the hardware address package pins and are held to either HIGH (logic 1)
or LOW (logic 0) to assign one of the four possible slave addresses. The last bit of the
slave address (R/W) defines the operation (read or write) to be performed. A HIGH
(logic 1) selects a read operation, while a LOW (logic 0) selects a write operation.
6.2 Pointer register and command byte
Following the successful acknowledgement of the address byte, the bus master sends a
command byte, which is stored in the Pointer register in the PCA9538A. Two bits of this
data byte state the operation (read or write) and the internal registers (Input, Output,
Polarity Inversion, or Configuration) that will be affected. Bit 6 in conjunction with the lower
three bits of the Command byte are used to point to the extended features of the device
(Agile I/O). This register is write only.
B7
B6
B5
B4
B3
B2
B1
B0
002aaf540
Fig 5.
Table 4.
B7
0
0
0
0
[1]
Pointer register bits
Command byte
Pointer register bits
B5
0
0
0
0
B4
0
0
0
0
B3
0
0
0
0
B2
0
0
0
0
B1
0
0
1
1
B0
0
1
0
1
Command byte Register
(hexadecimal)
00h
01h
02h
03h
Input port
Output port
Polarity Inversion
Configuration
Protocol
read byte
read/write byte
read/write byte
read/write byte
Power-up
default
xxxx xxxx
[1]
1111 1111
0000 0000
1111 1111
B6
0
0
0
0
Undefined.
PCA9538A
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP B.V. 2012. All rights reserved.
Product data sheet
Rev. 1 — 28 September 2012
5 of 37