This 16-bit I/O expander for the two-line bidirectional bus (I²C) is designed for 1.65-V to 5.5-V V_CC operation. It provides general-purpose remote I/O expansion for most microcontroller families via the I²C interface [serial clock (SCL), serial data (SDA)]. Two hardware pins (A0 and A1) are used to program and vary the fixed I²C address and allow up to four devices to share the same I²C bus. The TCA1116 consists of two 8-bit Configuration (input or output selection), Input Port, Output Port, and Polarity Inversion (active-high or active-low operation) registers. At power-on, the I/Os are configured as inputs. The system master can enable the I/Os as either inputs or outputs by writing to the I/O configuration bits. The data for each input or output is kept in the corresponding Input or output register. The polarity of the Input Port register can be inverted with the Polarity Inversion register. All registers can be read by the system master.

The system master can reset the TCA1116 in the event of a time-out or other improper operation by asserting a low in the RESET input. The power-on reset puts the registers in their default state and initializes the I²C/SMBus state machine. Asserting RESET causes the same reset/initialization to occur without depowering the part.

The TCA1116 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 I²C bus. Thus, the TCA1116 can remain a simple slave device.

The device outputs (latched) have high-current drive capability for directly driving LEDs. The device has low current consumption.