What is it?

A breadboard friendly breakout for the Linear Technology LTC4311 I2C/SMBus Accelerator.

This "bus accelerator" is an active bus terminator. Bus performance is improved greatly compared to using pull-up resistors alone. The active terminator allows for a longer, higher capacitance I2C bus and improves noise immunity. In heavily loaded systems multiple active terminators may be used to improve performance further.

The LTC4311 is a dual terminator and attaches to the SCK and SDA bus lines. It works in 5V and 3.3V designs.

Features (quoted the Linear Technologies datasheet)

• Improves I2C Bus Rise Time Transition
• Ensures Data Integrity with Multiple Devices on the I2C Bus
• Wide Supply Voltage Range: 1.6V to 5.5V
• Improves Low State Noise Margin
• Up to 400kHz Operation
• Auto Detect Low Power Standby Mode
• Strong Slew Limited Pull-up Current
• ±8kV Human Body Model ESD Ruggedness

This breakout module does not allow for disabling the LTC4311.

Why did you make it?

The LTC4311 is a tiny SMT part, plus they're relatively expensive. This breakout board makes it easy to use, and it's the cheapest breakout available. Every maker that works with I2C bus should have one of these in their toolkit.

What makes it special

• Fully assembled and tested.
• These are legit LTC4311 chips from Linear Technology.
• 100% Open Source Technology.