The MAX5161NEZT+T is a single-channel digital potentiometer from Analog Devices, configured as a rheostat with 32 wiper tap positions and a linear taper characteristic.
Supply and interface
The up/down (U/D, CS) serial interface uses two control lines — no SPI or I²C overhead, just a direction pin and a chip-select strobe to step the wiper. Memory is volatile, so the wiper position resets to mid-scale on power-up — the downstream circuit must tolerate the default setting or re-initialise the wiper after each power cycle.
Housed in a 6-pin TSOT-23-6 (thin SOT-23) package, 0.95 mm pitch, surface-mount. The ±25% resistance tolerance means the absolute end-to-end value can vary by up to 50 kΩ from the nominal 200 kΩ — the wiper step ratio stays consistent, but the actual resistance at any tap position shifts with the total tolerance.