General description
The PCF8576C 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 static or multiplexed LCD containing up to four backplanes and up to 40 segments and can easily be cascaded for larger LCD applications. The PCF8576C is compatible with most microprocessors or microcontrollers and communicates via a two-line bidirectional I2C-bus. Communication overheads are inimized by a display RAM with auto-incremented addressing and by hardware subaddressing.

Features and benefits
„ Single-chip LCD controller and driver
„ 40 segment drives:
  ‹  Up to twenty 7-segment alphanumeric characters
‹    Up to ten 14-segment alphanumeric characters
‹    Any graphics of up to 160 elements
„ Versatile blinking modes
„ No external components required (even in multiple device applications)
„ Selectable backplane drive configuration: static, 2, 3, or 4 backplane multiplexing
„ Selectable display bias configuration: static, 1⁄2, or 1⁄3
„ Internal LCD bias generation with voltage-follower buffers
„ 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
„ Wide logic LCD supply range:
    ‹ From 2 V for low-threshold LCDs
    ‹ Up to 6 V for guest-host LCDs and high-threshold twisted nematic LCDs
„ Low power consumption
„ May be cascaded for large LCD applications (up to 2560 segments possible)
„ No external components
„ Separate or combined LCD and logic supplies
„ Optimized pinning for plane wiring in both and multiple PCF8576C applications
„ Power-saving mode for extremely low power consumption in battery-operated and telephone applications