Protection features — depop, short-circuit, thermal, shutdown
Depop eliminates the audible pop when the amplifier powers up or exits shutdown — a common nuisance in consumer audio that gets flagged during compliance testing. Short-circuit protection and thermal protection mean the output stage can survive a momentary speaker-wire short or a stalled cooling fan without latching up or burning the board. The shutdown pin lets a GPIO from the host MCU mute the output, saving quiescent current when the audio path is idle. These features are standard on modern audio amps but worth confirming if you are migrating from an older Class AB design that lacked them.
The 16-SOIC (0.154" body width, 3.90 mm) is a surface-mount package that reflows on a standard SOIC footprint. No heatsink is required at 2W output into 4Ω, but board copper area under the package helps thermal spreading if the ambient runs near the upper end of the range.