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Exar Corporation 48720 Kato Road, Fremont CA, 94538 • 510-668-7017 • www.exar.com SP3224E,3225E,3226E,3227E_101_081711
THEORY OF OPERATION
Description
TheSP3224EandSP3225Eare2-driver/
2-receiver devices. The SP3226E and
SP3227E are 1-driver/1-receiver devices.
Allareidealforserialportsinembedded,
consumer, portable, or handheld applica-
tions.The transceiversmeettheEIA/TIA-
232 and ITU-T V.28/V.24 communication
protocolsforreliableserialcommunication.
ThedevicesfeatureExar’sproprietaryand
patented(U.S.5,306,954)on-boardcharge
pump circuitry that generates ±5.5V RS-
232voltagelevelsfroma single +3.0V to
+5.5Vpowersupply.
The SP3224E-SP3227E are ideal choic-
es for power sensitive designs. With the
AutoOn-line®Plusenabled,theSP3224E-
SP3227E reduce supply current to 1µA
whenever the transceivers are in idle. In
shutdown, the internal charge pump and
thedriverswillshutdown.Thisfeatureal-
lowsdesign engineers to address power
saving concerns without major design
changes.
Theory Of Operation
The SP3224E-SP3227E are made up of
fourbasiccircuitblocks:1.Drivers,2.Re-
ceivers, 3. the Exar proprietary charge
pump,and4.AutoOn-line®Pluscircuitry.
Drivers
The drivers are inverting level transmit-
tersthatconvertTTLorCMOSlogiclev-
els to 5.0V EIA/TIA-232 levels with an
inverted sense relative to the input logic
levels. Typically, the RS-232 output volt-
ageswingis+5.4Vwithnoloadand+5V
minimumfullyloaded.Thedriveroutputs
areprotectedagainstinniteshort-circuits
togroundwithoutdegradationinreliabili-
ty.ThesedriverscomplywiththeEIA-TIA-
232-Fand all previous RS-232 versions.
Unuseddriverinputsshouldbeconnected
toGNDorVCC.
The drivers can guarantee output data
ratesfullyloadedwith3KΩinparallelwith
1000pF (SP3224E/SP3226E), or 3KΩ in
parallel with 250pF (SP3225E/SP3227E)
ensuringcompatibilitywithPC-to-PCcom-
municationsoftware.Theslewrateofthe
driveroutputontheSP3224E/SP3226Eis
internallylimitedtoamaximumof30V/μs
in order to meet the EIA standards (EIA
RS-232D 2.1.7, Paragraph 5). The Slew
RateofSP3225E/SP3227Eisnotlimited
toenablehigherspeeddatatransfers.The
transitionoftheloadedoutputfromHIGH
toLOWalsomeetsthemonotonicsignal
transitionrequirementsofthestandard.
Receivers
The receivers convert EIA/TIA-232 signal
levels to TTL or CMOS logic output lev-
els.Receiversremainactiveduringdevice
shutdown. Since receiver input is usually
fromatransmissionlinewherelongcable
lengths and system interference can de-
gradethesignal,theinputshaveatypical
hysteresismarginof500mV.Thisensures
thatthereceiverisvirtuallyimmunetonoisy
transmissionlines.Shouldaninputbeleft
unconnected,aninternal5KΩpulldownre-
sistor to ground will commit the output of
thereceivertoaHIGHstate.
Charge Pump
Thechargepump is a Exar–patentedde-
sign (US Patent #5,306,954) and uses a
unique approach compared to older less-
efcient designs. The charge pump still
requiresfourexternalcapacitors,butuses
afourphasevoltage shiftingtechniqueto
attain symmetrical 5.5V power supplies.
The internal power supply consists of a
regulateddualchargepumpthatprovides
outputvoltages5.5Vregardlessofthein-
putvoltage(Vcc)overthe+3.0Vto+5.5V
range. This is important to maintain com-
pliant RS-232 levels regardless of power
supplyuctuations.
Thechargepumpoperatesinadiscontinu-
ousmodeusinganinternaloscillator.Ifthe
outputvoltagesarelessthanamagnitude