2001 Microchip Technology Inc. DS20070M-page 5
24LC16B
2.0 FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
The 24LC16B supports a bi-directional 2-wire bus and
data transmission protocol. A device that sends data
onto the bus is defined as transmitter, and a device
receivi ng dat a as receiver. The bu s has to be co ntrolled
by a master device which generates the serial clock
(SCL), controls the bus access and generates the
START and STOP conditions, while the 24LC16B
works as slave. Both master and slave can operate as
transmitter or receiver, but the master device deter-
mines which mode is ac tivated.
3.0 BUS CHARACTERISTICS
The following bus protocol has been defined:
•Data transfer may be initiated only when the bus
is not busy.
•During data transfer, the data line must remain
stab le whe never th e cloc k line i s HIGH . Chang es
in th e dat a line whi le the clock line i s HI GH w ill be
interpreted as a START or STOP condition.
Accordingly, the following bus conditions have been
defined (Figure 3 -1).
3.1 Bus not Busy (A)
Both data and clock lines remain HIGH.
3.2 Start Data Transfer (B)
A HIGH to LOW transition of the SDA line while the
clock (SCL) is HIGH determines a START condition.
All commands must be preceded by a START condi-
tion.
3.3 S top Data Transfer (C)
A LOW to HIGH transition of the SDA line while the
clock (SCL) is HIGH determines a STOP condition. All
operati ons must be ende d with a STOP c ondition.
3.4 Data Valid (D)
The state of the data line represents valid data when,
after a START condition, the data line is stable for the
duration of the HIGH period of the clock signal.
The data on the line must be changed during the LOW
period o f th e clock sign al. Th ere is one c lock pu lse p er
bit of data.
Each data transfer is initiated with a START condition
and term ina t ed with a STOP c ond iti on. Th e n um ber of
the data bytes transferred between the START and
STOP conditions is determined by the master device
and is theo retically u nlimited , alth ough onl y the l ast six -
teen wi ll be stored when doing a write oper ation. When
an overwrite does occur it will replace data in a first-in
first-out (FIFO ) fash ion.
3.5 Acknowledge
Each receiving device, when addressed, is obliged to
generate an acknowledge after the reception of each
byte. The mast er device mus t ge nera te a n ext ra c lock
pulse which is associated with this acknowledge bit.
The device that acknowledges, has to pull down the
SDA line d uring th e ackn owledge clock pulse in such a
way that the SDA line is stable LOW during the HIGH
period of the acknowledge related clock pulse. Of
course, setup and hold times must be taken into
account. During reads, a master must signal an end of
dat a to the sl av e b y n ot generat ing an ac kn ow le dg e b it
on the las t by te tha t has be en c loc ke d ou t of th e sl av e.
In this case, the slave (24LC16B) will leave the data
line HIGH to enable the master to generate the STOP
condition.
FIGURE 3-1: DATA TRANSFER SEQUENCE ON THE SERIAL BUS
Note: The 24LC16B does not generate any
acknowledge bits if an internal pro-
gramming cycle is in progress.
SCL
SDA
(A) (B) (D) (D) (A)(C)
START
CONDITION ADDRESS OR
ACKNOWLEDGE
VALID
DATA
ALLOWED
TO CHANGE
STOP
CONDITION