GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The PCF8576 is a peripheral device which interfaces to almost any Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) with low multiplex rates. It generates the drive signals for any static or multiplexed LCD containing up to four backplanes and up to 40 segments and can easily be cascaded for larger LCD applications. The PCF8576 is compatible with most microprocessors/microcontrollers and communicates via a two-line bidirectional I2C-bus. Communication overheads are minimized by a display RAM with auto-incremented addressing, by hardware subaddressing and by display memory switching (static and duplex drive modes).

FEATURES
• Single-chip LCD controller/driver
• Selectable backplane drive configuration: static or 2/3/4 backplane multiplexing
• Selectable display bias configuration: static, 1⁄2 or 1⁄3
• Internal LCD bias generation with voltage-follower buffers
• 40 segment drives: up to twenty 8-segment numeric characters; up to ten 15-segment alphanumeric characters; or any graphics of up to 160 elements
• 40 × 4-bit RAM for display data storage
• Auto-incremented display data loading across device subaddress boundaries
• Display memory bank switching in static and duplex drive modes
• Versatile blinking modes
• LCD and logic supplies may be separated
• Wide power supply range: from 2 V for low-threshold LCDs and up to 9 V for guest-host LCDs and high-threshold (automobile) twisted nematic LCDs
• Low power consumption
• Power-saving mode for extremely low power consumption in battery-operated and telephone applications
• I2C-bus interface
• TTL/CMOS compatible
• Compatible with any 4-bit, 8-bit or 16-bit microprocessors/microcontrollers
• May be cascaded for large LCD applications (up to 2560 segments possible)
• Cascadable with 24-segment LCD driver PCF8566
• Optimized pinning for plane wiring in both single and multiple PCF8576 applications
• Space-saving 56-lead plastic very small outline package (VSO56)
• Very low external component count (at most one resistor, even in multiple device applications)
• Compatible with chip-on-glass technology
• Manufactured in silicon gate CMOS process.