Datasheet

1. General description
The PCF8536 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
PCF8536 is compatible with most microcontrollers and communicates via the two-line
bidirectional I
2
C-bus (PCF8536AT) or a three line unidirectional SPI-bus (PCF8536BT).
Communication overheads are minimized using a display RAM with auto-incremented
addressing.
The PCF8536 features an on-chip PWM controller for LED illumination. Up to six
independent channels can be configured. Each channel has 128 levels allowing the
possibility for two RGB controllers. Each of them provides over 2 million colors. Each
channel can also be used for static drive.
2. Features and benefits
 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
 400 kHz I
2
C-bus interface (PCF8536AT)
 5 MHz SPI-bus interface (PCF8536BT)
 Programmable frame frequency in the range of 60 Hz to 300 Hz in steps of 10 Hz;
factory calibrated
PCF8536
Universal LCD driver for low multiplex rates including a 6
channel PWM generator
Rev. 2 — 21 February 2012 Product data sheet
1. The definition of the abbreviations and acronyms used in this data sheet can be found in Section 19.