What this RS422/RS485 driver does on the bus
It provides four driver outputs with no integrated receivers — a pure driver for the transmit side of a differential bus.
The 4/0 driver/receiver count tells you this part handles only the transmit differential pair. If your design needs both driver and receiver on the same node, you pair it with a quad receiver like the AM26LV32 or a full transceiver. The pure-driver architecture keeps the signal path clean for point-to-point or multi-drop transmit lines where you want separate control over the receive side.
Supply voltage — 3.3V only, no 5V tolerance
The AM26LV31EIPWR operates from 3V to 3.6V, making it strictly a 3.3V rail part. It is not 5V-tolerant on the supply or the bus pins. The low-voltage supply reduces power dissipation on dense backplanes, but the input thresholds track the 3.3V rail, so level translation is needed when interfacing with 5V UARTs.
Package and footprint — 16-TSSOP
Housed in a 16-TSSOP package (4.40mm width, 0.65mm pitch), the AM26LV31EIPWR fits on compact PCBs where board area is tight. The surface-mount TSSOP is a standard footprint shared with many logic and interface parts, so layout reuse across designs is straightforward.
It is ROHS3 compliant, which satisfies the EU RoHS directive for lead-free soldering.