PIC16LF18855-I/SO - 8-Bit 32MHz XLP MCU 14KB Flash 28-SOIC | Microchip
MPN: PIC16LF18855-I/SO ✓ Active| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1.94 | $1.94 |
| 10 | $1.74 | $17.40 |
| 100 | $1.55 | $155.00 |
| 500 | $1.39 | $695.00 |
| 1,000 | $1.24 | $1,240.00 |
PIC16LF18855-I/SO Overview
What is an 8-bit microcontroller? An 8-bit MCU is a single-chip computer whose CPU, registers and ALU operate on 8-bit data words; it sits at the lowest tier of the embedded controller hierarchy (8-bit -> 16-bit -> 32-bit MCU -> microprocessor) and is favored for deterministic, low-power, cost-sensitive tasks. The PIC16LF18855 extends that baseline with XLP technology, Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs), and rich analog such as a 12-bit ADC with computation and 10-bit DAC.
Key features include 14KB self-programmable Flash with device Information Area (DIA) and Unique Device Identifier (UDID), 1KB SRAM, 256B EEPROM, 12-bit ADC2 with up to 35 channels, 10-bit DAC, 8-bit DAC, 5-bit DAC, four 16-bit timers, two CCP modules, two Enhanced USART, two SPI, two I2C/SPI, two comparators and an on-chip temperature indicator. Five 16-bit Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) outputs and configurable logic cells add motor-control and lighting capability. The "LF" silicon supports 1.8V minimum VDD, ideal for lithium coin cells and two-AA designs.
Architecturally, the device uses Microchip's enhanced mid-range 16-bit instruction set with an 8-level hardware stack and vectored interrupts. Peripherals are interconnected through the Peripheral Pin Select (PPS) routing fabric and through hardware CIPs such as the Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG), Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO) and Configurable Logic Cell (CLC), letting complex timing and signal-conditioning functions run without CPU intervention and preserving deep-sleep current in the nanoampere range.
Typical applications include low-power IoT sensor nodes, consumer wearables, battery-backed thermostats and metering, LED lighting controllers, BLDC fan and small pump drivers, and general-purpose industrial control boards that need rich analog and UART connectivity in a compact SOIC footprint.
Designers should budget for ICD 3 / ICD 4 / PICkit 4 / Snap programmer compatibility, place a 100 nF decoupling capacitor within 2 mm of VDD and reserve the dedicated ICSPCLK/ICSPDAT pins when in-circuit programming is required. The on-chip voltage reference and the ADC2 with computation reduce external component count.
This page synthesizes 2026 distributor pricing, drop-in cross-package alternatives, design pitfalls and FAQ answers not found in the manufacturer datasheet.
Drop-in alternatives for PIC16LF18855-I/SO — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Variants in this series
Same-series models that are drop-in compatible with PIC16LF18855-I/SO (same form factor and footprint) — differing in ADC, Package, Operating Temperature, Core Architecture, Program Memory (Flash).
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
PIC16LF18855-E/SO
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$1.52 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC16LF18855T-I/SO
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
PIC16LF18855-E/ML
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$1.05 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC16F18855-I/SO
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$1.29 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC16LF18854-I/SO
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$1.63 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC16LF18856-I/SO
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
PIC16LF18855-I/SO Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Device Family | PIC® XLP™ 16F |
| Core Architecture | 8-bit Enhanced Mid-Range (16-bit instructions) |
| Program Memory (Flash) | 14 KB (8K x 14 words) |
| Data SRAM | 1 KB |
| Data EEPROM | 256 B |
| Maximum CPU Speed | 32 MHz |
| Supply Voltage (VDD) | 1.8 V to 3.6 V |
| Operating Temperature | -40 °C to +85 °C (Industrial) |
| Package | 28-pin SOIC (300 mil) |
| I/O Pins | 25 (maximum) |
| ADC | 12-bit ADC2 with Computation, up to 35 channels |
| DAC | 1x 10-bit, 1x 8-bit, 1x 5-bit |
| Timers | 4x 16-bit / 3x 8-bit Timer |
| Communication | 2x EUSART, 2x SPI, 2x I2C |
| PWM Outputs | Up to 5x 16-bit PWM |
| Comparators | 2x with selectable reference |
| CIPs | CLC, CWG, NCO, DSM, ZCD, PWM, COG |
| Programming | ICSP via PICKit 4 / ICD 4 / Snap |
| RoHS Status | Compliant |
| MSL Level | 1 |
PIC16LF18855-I/SO Pin Configuration
| Pin 1 | RA2 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input / CWG1FLT |
| Pin 2 | RA3 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input / CWG1OUT |
| Pin 3 | RA4 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input / T0CKI |
| Pin 4 | RA5/MCLR — Bidirectional I/O / Master Clear Reset (active-low) |
| Pin 5 | AVDD — Analog VDD supply input |
| Pin 6 | AVSS — Analog ground reference |
| Pin 7 | RA0 — Bidirectional I/O / DAC1OUT1 / ICSPDAT |
| Pin 8 | RA1 — Bidirectional I/O / VREF+ / ICSPCLK |
| Pin 9 | RA7 — Bidirectional I/O / OSC1 / CLKIN |
| Pin 10 | RA6 — Bidirectional I/O / OSC2 / CLKOUT |
| Pin 11 | RC0 — Bidirectional I/O / SOSCO |
| Pin 12 | RC1 — Bidirectional I/O / SOSCI |
| Pin 13 | RC2 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 14 | RC3 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input / SCL1 |
| Pin 15 | RC4 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input / SDA1 |
| Pin 16 | RC5 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 17 | RC6 — Bidirectional I/O / TX1/CK1 |
| Pin 18 | RC7 — Bidirectional I/O / RX1/DT1 |
| Pin 19 | VSS — Digital ground reference |
| Pin 20 | VDD — Digital VDD supply input |
| Pin 21 | RB0 — Bidirectional I/O / CCP4 / INT0 |
| Pin 22 | RB1 — Bidirectional I/O / CCP5 / INT1 |
| Pin 23 | RB2 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 24 | RB3 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 25 | RB4 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 26 | RB5 — Bidirectional I/O / analog input |
| Pin 27 | RB6 — Bidirectional I/O / ICSPCLK / TX2/CK2 |
| Pin 28 | RB7 — Bidirectional I/O / ICSPDAT / RX2/DT2 |
Typical Applications
PIC16LF18855-I/SO is suitable for 6 applications: Battery-Powered IoT Sensor Node, Consumer Wearable Health Monitor, Battery-Backed Thermostat and HVAC Control, LED Lighting Controller and Dimming Driver, Small BLDC Motor and Fan Driver, Industrial Sensor and Process Controller.
Battery-Powered IoT Sensor Node
The PIC16LF18855-I/SO is well suited to battery-powered IoT sensor nodes because its 1.8 V to 3.6 V VDD window matches a single CR2032 or two AA cells, and its XLP silicon drives sleep current below 50 nA with Watchdog Timer running. The integrated 12-bit ADC2 with Computation performs oversampling and threshold detection in hardware, offloading the CPU and allowing the core to remain in deep sleep between conversions, while the EUSART/SPI/I2C ports connect to radios such as the MRF24J40 or LoRa transceivers. Designers typically sample the sensor at 1 Hz, transmit a packet every few minutes and idle in nanoampere sleep, achieving multi-year coin-cell life. Compared with discrete op-amp + ADC + MCU implementations, this single-chip solution reduces BOM by 60 percent and PCB area to under 10 by 10 mm.
Recommended
Consumer Wearable Health Monitor
Wearables demand tight power budgets, small PCB area and rich analog front-ends, all of which the PIC16LF18855-I/SO addresses directly. The 12-bit ADC2 with hardware averaging and on-die temperature indicator captures skin-temperature and battery-voltage telemetry without external components, while the on-chip 10-bit and 8-bit DACs drive pulse-oximetry LEDs through a low-side MOSFET with software-set bias. The Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) and Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO) generate custom waveforms for LED driver PWM and heart-rate sample timing without waking the CPU from sleep. The 28-SOIC package fits under 12 by 12 mm and the LF silicon keeps quiescent draw below 50 nA, supporting coin-cell or rechargeable Li-Po designs with USB-C charging via companion power-path ICs.
Recommended
Battery-Backed Thermostat and HVAC Control
HVAC and thermostat designs need deterministic timing, multiple sensor inputs and 5 V-tolerant I/O when interfacing to triacs and relays; the PIC16LF18855-I/SO delivers this through its 32 MHz / 8 MIPS core, 16-bit timers and four CCP channels. The integrated 12-bit ADC2 with up to 35 channels reads NTC thermistors, humidity sensors and pressure transducers directly, while the on-chip comparators with selectable internal reference implement zero-crossing detection for triac firing. The CWG and PWM peripherals generate synchronized complementary drive waveforms for brushless fans and PWM valves, and the EUSART exposes Modbus RTU for BACnet bridges. The 1.8 V minimum VDD keeps a coin-cell RTC ticking during AC-line brownouts.
Recommended
LED Lighting Controller and Dimming Driver
LED lighting requires precise PWM dimming down to 0.1 percent duty cycle without flicker, which the PIC16LF18855-I/SO achieves through its 16-bit PWM peripherals with hardware shutdown and fault inputs. The CWG peripheral generates complementary drive signals for synchronous buck or boost LED driver topologies, while the on-chip 10-bit DAC provides analog dimming and color-temperature blending for tunable-white fixtures. The Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) implements DALI or 0 to 10 V dimming protocol decoding in hardware, freeing the CPU for higher-level wireless (BLE/Zigbee) commissioning. The wide 1.8 V to 3.6 V supply supports both 3.3 V and battery-backed emergency-driver topologies, and 50 nA sleep preserves energy during power-off states.
Recommended
Small BLDC Motor and Fan Driver
Small brushless DC motors in fans, pumps and small appliances benefit from the PIC16LF18855-I/SO's hardware motor-control peripherals. The Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG) and 16-bit PWM modules produce 6-step trapezoidal or sinusoidal commutation with dead-band insertion, while the on-chip comparators execute back-EMF zero-cross sensing directly from the motor phase terminals without external op-amps. The Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) and NCO generate dithered PWM clocks for fine-grained speed control, and the EUSART exposes a LIN bus interface for automotive small-motor networks. With 1.8 V to 3.6 V VDD and 50 nA sleep, the same MCU serves as both the commutation controller and a standby monitor when the motor is idle.
Recommended
Industrial Sensor and Process Controller
Industrial process controllers demand wide operating temperature, deterministic interrupts and 12-bit-plus analog precision, all of which the PIC16LF18855-I/SO delivers. The 12-bit ADC2 with up to 35 channels and on-die temperature indicator captures 4 to 20 mA loop signals (via external resistor), thermocouples (with software linearization) and ratiometric bridge sensors, while the 16-bit timers and CLC implement PID control loops at sub-millisecond rates. The two EUSARTs expose RS-485 Modbus RTU slaves, and the SPI peripheral connects to local DACs for analog control outputs. Industrial-grade silicon and a -40 to +85 °C industrial operating range (extendable to +125 °C with the -E variant) suit factory-floor deployments, while XLP current budgets of 50 nA sleep support battery-backed monitoring nodes.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for PIC16LF18855-I/SO — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | PIC16LF18855-E/SO | PIC16LF18855T-I/SO | PIC16LF18855-E/ML | PIC16F18855-I/SO | PIC16LF18854-I/SO | PIC16LF18856-I/SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 28-SOIC (300 mil) | 28-SOIC (300 mil) | 28-SOIC (300 mil) | 28-QFN (6x6 mm) | 28-SOIC (300 mil) | 28-SOIC (300 mil) | 28-SOIC (300 mil) |
| Brand | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology |
| Operating Temperature | -40 to +85 °C (Industrial) | -40 to +125 °C (Extended Industrial) | -40 to +85 °C (Industrial) | -40 to +125 °C (Extended Industrial) | -40 to +85 °C (Industrial) | -40 to +85 °C (Industrial) | -40 to +85 °C (Industrial) |
| Supply Voltage (VDD) | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 2.3 V to 5.5 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V |
| Program Memory (Flash) | 14 KB (8K x 14) | 14 KB (8K x 14) | 14 KB (8K x 14) | 14 KB (8K x 14) | 14 KB (8K x 14) | 7 KB (4K x 14) | 28 KB (16K x 14) |
| Data SRAM | 1 KB | 1 KB | 1 KB | 1 KB | 1 KB | 1 KB | 2 KB |
| Maximum CPU Speed | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS | 32 MHz / 8 MIPS |
| EEPROM | 256 B | 256 B | 256 B | 256 B | 256 B | 256 B | 256 B |
| Approx. Unit Price (1 pc) | 1.94 USD | 2.10 USD | 1.94 USD | 2.30 USD | 1.95 USD | 1.70 USD | 2.05 USD |
Key Differentiators
- Lower VDD minimum of 1.8 V vs F-variant 2.3 V (vs PIC16F18855-I/SO)
- Extended -40 to +125 °C industrial grade option (vs PIC16LF18855T-I/SO)
- Larger 28 KB Flash for firmware headroom (vs PIC16LF18854-I/SO)
Design Notes
Decoupling: place a 100 nF X7R ceramic capacitor within 2 mm of the VDD (pin 20) lead and a second 100 nF within 2 mm of AVDD (pin 5). Add a 10 uF bulk capacitor on VDD near the MCU for stable ADC2 reference. The PIC16LF18855-I/SO datasheet specifies VDD operating range 1.8 V to 3.6 V; operating below 1.8 V violates the datasheet minimum and can cause Flash programming failures. Always monitor the on-die ADC temperature indicator and battery-voltage ADC channel together to enter controlled deep sleep before brown-out reset fires.
MCLR is shared with RA5 on pin 4; never tie MCLR directly to VDD without a 1 kohm to 10 kohm pull-up, or the ICSP programmer cannot drive the device into reset for programming. A 100 nF capacitor from MCLR to VSS provides noise immunity but slows programmer reset timing - keep it under 470 nF. ICSP pins ICSPCLK (RB6/27) and ICSPDAT (RB7/28) are shared with general-purpose I/O; after reset they default to digital inputs with weak pull-ups, so external I2C pull-ups may not be required if you keep them on the ICSP header. Configure PPS before enabling peripherals - missed PPS mapping is the single most common reason PIC16 I/O peripherals appear dead at first bring-up.
The 28-SOIC package has a theta_JA of approximately 70 C/W on a 4-layer JEDEC test PCB and approximately 95 C/W on a 2-layer board. At 32 MHz and 3.3 V the core draws under 4 mA, so self-heating is negligible (<0.5 C rise). For high-temperature industrial deployments, choose the -E variant (PIC16LF18855-E/SO) rated -40 to +125 C, or provide at least 50 mm squared of copper pour near VDD to drop the junction-to-ambient rise. Never operate above the storage temperature of +150 C as the on-chip EEPROM endurance degrades above the absolute maximum.
Compliance Information
RoHS / REACH compliance per Microchip product page. Not AEC-Q100 qualified - choose PIC16F18855-I/SO for automotive Functional Safety (FuSa) designs.
