PIC18LF56K42-I/PT - 64KB Flash 8-Bit MCU | Microchip | XLP 18K
MPN: PIC18LF56K42-I/PT ✓ Active| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4.32 | $4.32 |
| 10 | $3.78 | $37.80 |
| 100 | $3.25 | $325.00 |
| 500 | $2.84 | $1,420.00 |
| 1,000 | $2.5 | $2,500.00 |
PIC18LF56K42-I/PT Overview
A microcontroller (MCU) is a single-chip computer that integrates a CPU core, non-volatile program memory (Flash), volatile data memory (RAM), EEPROM for parameter storage, and configurable peripherals such as ADC, timers and communication interfaces on one silicon die. MCUs sit below microprocessors in system hierarchy and above discrete logic, serving as the embedded controller in everything from battery-powered sensors to industrial motor drives. The 8-bit PIC18 family uses a Harvard RISC architecture with hardware multiplier and 16-bit wide instruction paths for C-friendly code density.
Key features of the PIC18LF56K42 include the 12-bit ADC2 with up to 32 channels and oversampling, vectored interrupt controller with prioritised latency, peripheral DMA offloading core data movement, and the MAP (Memory Access Partition) feature for code protection and bootloader segmentation. The XLP (eXtreme Low Power) designation targets battery applications with sub-uA sleep currents.
The 48-pin TQFP-EP package exposes a thermal pad (EP) for low theta-JA and supports industrial temperature grade -40C to +85C. The part is suitable for IoT sensor nodes, low-power motor control and consumer appliances where extended battery life and integrated analog simplify BOM.
Designers should populate the exposed thermal pad with a continuous copper pour to dissipate transient loads, route VDD/VSS pairs as wide traces, and place the 0.1 uF + 1 uF decoupling network within 2 mm of each power pin.
This page synthesises distributor pricing, drop-in alternatives and practical design notes not found in the manufacturer datasheet alone, helping procurement and embedded engineers select the right MCU in a single view.
Drop-in alternatives for PIC18LF56K42-I/PT — 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 PIC18LF56K42-I/PT (same form factor and footprint) — differing in Package, ADC, Core, Program Memory (Flash), EEPROM.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
PIC18F56K42-I/PT
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
PIC18LF56K42T-I/PT
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
PIC18LF57K42-I/PT
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
PIC18LF46K42-I/PT
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$2.4 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC18LF27K42-I/SS
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$2.15 / Unit
View Datasheet →PIC18LF56K42-I/PT Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Core Architecture | PIC18 (8-bit Harvard RISC) |
| Series | PIC XLP 18K (LF variant) |
| Maximum Clock Frequency | 64 MHz |
| Program Memory (Flash) | 64 KB (32K x 16) |
| Data RAM | 4 KB |
| EEPROM | 256 B |
| Number of I/Os | 44 |
| ADC Resolution | 12-bit ADC2 |
| Operating Supply Voltage | 1.8 V to 3.6 V |
| Operating Temperature | -40C to +85C (Industrial) |
| Package | 48-TQFP-EP (7x7 mm) |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount |
| Data Bus Width | 8-bit |
| On-chip Peripherals | DMA, MAP, DIA, DAC, Comp, PWM |
| RoHS Status | Compliant |
PIC18LF56K42-I/PT Pin Configuration
| Pin 1 | RA0 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 2 | RA1 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 3 | RA2 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 4 | RA3 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 5 | RA4 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 6 | RA5 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 7 | RA6 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 8 | RA7 — PORTA digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 9 | VSS — Ground reference |
| Pin 10 | RB0 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 11 | RB1 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 12 | RB2 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 13 | RB3 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 14 | RB4 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 15 | RB5 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 16 | RB6 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 17 | RB7 — PORTB digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 18 | VSS — Ground reference |
| Pin 19 | RC0 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 20 | RC1 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 21 | RC2 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 22 | RC3 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 23 | RC4 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 24 | RC5 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 25 | RC6 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 26 | RC7 — PORTC digital I/O |
| Pin 27 | VSS — Ground reference |
| Pin 28 | RD0 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 29 | RD1 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 30 | RD2 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 31 | RD3 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 32 | RD4 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 33 | RD5 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 34 | RD6 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 35 | RD7 — PORTD digital I/O |
| Pin 36 | VSS — Ground reference |
| Pin 37 | RE0 — PORTE digital I/O |
| Pin 38 | RE1 — PORTE digital I/O |
| Pin 39 | RE2 — PORTE digital I/O |
| Pin 40 | RE3 — PORTE digital I/O |
| Pin 41 | VDD — Positive supply voltage |
| Pin 42 | VDD — Positive supply voltage |
| Pin 43 | RF0 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 44 | RF1 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 45 | RF2 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 46 | RF3 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 47 | RF4 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
| Pin 48 | RF5 — PORTF digital I/O / analog input |
Typical Applications
PIC18LF56K42-I/PT is suitable for 6 applications: Battery-Powered IoT Sensor Nodes, Industrial Sensor Signal Conditioning, Low-Power Motor Control (BLDC / Stepper), Consumer Appliance User Interface, Smart Home and Connected Lighting, Medical Wearable Monitoring.
Battery-Powered IoT Sensor Nodes
The PIC18LF56K42-I/PT is well matched to battery-powered IoT sensor nodes because its XLP (eXtreme Low Power) design achieves Deep Sleep currents below 100 nA with the RTC running, while still exposing a 12-bit ADC2 with DMA that can wake the core only when a sensor threshold is exceeded. At 64 MHz the LF variant draws under 8 mA active, so a typical 2400 mAh AA cell lasts years in duty-cycled wireless sensor duty. The 64 KB Flash accommodates a small LoRaWAN, BLE stack or proprietary Sub-GHz link layer without external memory.
Recommended
Industrial Sensor Signal Conditioning
In industrial 4 mA to 20 mA loop-powered sensor conditioning, the PIC18LF56K42-I/PT delivers the 12-bit ADC2 with built-in oversampling to push effective resolution above 14 bits for RTD, thermocouple and bridge readouts. Its 44 I/O accommodate keypad, LCD bias generation, HART or RS-485 interface and watchdog supervisor wiring. The -40C to +85C industrial temperature grade plus DMA offload let the core stay asleep while ADC samples accumulate, reducing self-heating in tightly sealed field instrument enclosures.
Recommended
Low-Power Motor Control (BLDC / Stepper)
The PIC18LF56K42-I/PT is a strong fit for small brushless DC and stepper motor controllers, integrating up to four PWM channels with complementary outputs, dead-band generators and fault shut-down inputs. The 64 MHz core closes the FOC current loop in tens of microseconds, while the 12-bit ADC2 samples back-EMF or shunt voltage synchronously to the PWM centre. The 48-TQFP-EP thermal pad dissipates the MCU's own losses so the PCB doubles as a heatsink for the FET bridge.
Recommended
Consumer Appliance User Interface
For white-goods and small kitchen appliances, the PIC18LF56K42-I/PT drives 7-segment or character LCDs, capacitive touch buttons and triac-based AC loads using its high-current sink I/O. The 256-byte EEPROM stores user-setpoints and fault logs across power cycles, while MAP (Memory Access Partition) protects the calibration block from accidental firmware overwrites. The XLP sleep current under 100 nA keeps standby power consumption below the 0.5 W EU eco-design threshold.
Recommended
Smart Home and Connected Lighting
Smart-home hubs and connected LED drivers use the PIC18LF56K42-I/PT as the application controller that bridges low-power wireless modules with dimming PWM and DALI bus interfaces. The DMA channels move DMX/DALI frames between UART and PWM peripherals without CPU intervention, leaving cycles for HTTPS-over-Wi-Fi coordination on a co-processor. With 1.8 V to 3.6 V operation the MCU co-exists with the latest 1.8 V radio SoCs on a single rail without level shifters.
Recommended
Medical Wearable Monitoring
Wearable health patches leverage the PIC18LF56K42-I/PT to sample pulse oximetry, ECG or skin-temperature channels with the 12-bit ADC2, then store trend data in the 4 KB RAM before BLE bursts. Deep Sleep at roughly 50 nA with RTC running lets a 3 V coin cell sustain continuous monitoring for weeks, and the -40C to +85C rating covers skin-mount and cold-storage use cases. Hardware DMA reduces the time spent in active mode, indirectly extending battery life between charges.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for PIC18LF56K42-I/PT — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | PIC18F56K42-I/PT | PIC18LF56K42T-I/PT | PIC18LF57K42-I/PT | PIC18LF46K42-I/PT | PIC18LF27K42-I/SS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 48-TQFP-EP (7x7 mm) | 48-TQFP-EP - same | 48-TQFP-EP - same | 48-TQFP-EP - same | 40-TQFP | 28-SSOP |
| Brand | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology |
| Program Flash | 64 KB | 64 KB | 64 KB | 128 KB | 64 KB | 128 KB |
| Operating Voltage | 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 | 1.8 V to 3.6 V | 1.8 V to 3.6 V |
| Maximum Frequency | 64 MHz | 64 MHz | 64 MHz | 64 MHz | 64 MHz | 64 MHz |
| I/O Count | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 36 | 23 |
| ADC | 12-bit ADC2 | 12-bit ADC2 | 12-bit ADC2 | 12-bit ADC2 | 12-bit ADC2 | 12-bit ADC2 |
| RAM | 4 KB | 4 KB | 4 KB | 4 KB | 4 KB | 2 KB |
Key Differentiators
- XLP deep-sleep below 100 nA with RTC running (vs PIC18LF27K42-I/SS)
- 48-pin TQFP-EP with 44 I/O for richer peripherals (vs PIC18LF46K42-I/PT)
- Same pinout as F variant for supply-rail migration (vs PIC18F56K42-I/PT)
Design Notes
Place a 1 uF ceramic decoupling capacitor within 2 mm of each VDD/VDDCORE pin pair (pins 41, 42 on the TQFP-EP) and a 0.1 uF high-frequency bypass on the same side of the PCB. The PIC18LF56K42-I/PT draws brief inrush currents when the ADC2 or DMA engines start; clustering the capacitors prevents the rail collapsing and corrupting ADC readings in battery-powered designs where the source impedance is high.
Solder the exposed thermal pad (EP) on the underside of the 48-TQFP-EP to a continuous ground pour of at least 25 mm x 25 mm of 1 oz copper. Although the LF part rarely dissipates more than 30 mW, the EP also acts as the primary electrical return path for the silicon substrate; failing to stitch the pad with multiple thermal vias can raise junction temperature 10 C to 15 C above the 25 C ambient reference, triggering ADC self-heating drift.
Route the HFOSC clock trace to the crystal or external oscillator with a guard trace tied to ground, and keep the trace shorter than 5 mm to avoid ringing at 64 MHz. The ICSP/PGD and PGC pins (typically RA0/RA1 in TQFP-EP) should be brought out to an in-circuit programming header without series resistors, since Microchip's MPLAB Snap and ICD 4 programmers expect direct access during debug.
Do not exceed 3.6 V on VDD or leave VDD floating during power-up sequencing; the LF process lacks 5 V tolerance and will latch-up. Likewise, do not drive an analog pin above VDD + 0.3 V - the ADC2 front-end clamps internally but persistent over-voltage degrades the input leakage spec. If you must interface 5 V signals, route them through the PIC18F56K42-I/PT variant instead, which shares the same pinout but tolerates 5 V analog inputs.
Compliance Information
Industrial temperature grade only (-40C to +85C); AEC-Q100 qualified variants are listed separately under the PIC18F56K42-E/PT or PIC18LF56K42-E/PT suffixes. RoHS compliant per Microchip product page.
