General description

The PCA8536 is a peripheral device which interfaces to almost any Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)1 with low multiplex rates. It generates the drive signals for any multiplexed LCD containing up to eight backplanes, up to 44 segments, and up to 320 elements. The PCA8536 is compatible with most microcontrollers and communicates via the two-line bidirectional I2C-bus (PCA8536AT) or a three line unidirectional SPI-bus (PCA8536BT). Communication overheads are minimized using a display RAM with auto-incremented addressing.

Features and benefits

AEC Q100 compliant for automotive applications.

Single-chip 320 segment LCD controller and driver with 6 channel PWM generator

6 channel PWM generator for backlight LED illumination

Selectable display bias configuration

Wide range for digital power supply: from 1.8 V to 5.5 V

Wide LCD supply range: from 2.5 V for low threshold LCDs and up to 9.0 V for high threshold twisted nematic LCDs

Low power consumption

Selectable backplane drive configuration: 4, 6, or 8 backplane multiplexing

LCD and logic supplies may be separated

320-bit RAM for display data storage

6 PWM outputs with a 7-bit resolution (128 steps) and drivers for external transistors

Programmable PWM frame frequency to avoid LCD backlight flickering

Extended temperature range up to 95oC

400 kHz I2C-bus interface (PCA8536AT)

5 MHz SPI-bus interface (PCA8536BT)

Programmable frame frequency in the range of 60 Hz to 300 Hz in steps of 10 Hz; factory calibrated

320 segments driven allowing:

up to 40 7-segment alphanumeric characters

up to 20 14-segment alphanumeric characters

any graphics of up to 320 elements

Manufactured insilicon gate CMOS process

Applications

Car Radio

Climate Control

Dash board display