RS-232 transceiver with a wide supply window
250 kbps data rate — what it buys you
At 250 kbps this transceiver is fast enough for legacy RS-232 links up to about 30 metres at 9600 baud with margin, or short-haul runs at higher rates. If your design needs 1 Mbps or more, you're looking at a different family (MAX3232E or MAX3221E). For the bulk of industrial serial ports, 250 kbps is the sweet spot — it keeps EMI low and the slew-limited output meets the RS-232 standard without extra filtering.
2/2 driver/receiver count and full duplex
Two drivers and two receivers mean a full set of TX/RX lines plus hardware handshake (RTS/CTS) in one IC. Full-duplex operation lets both directions talk simultaneously, which matters for modems, multi-drop polling, or any link that can't half-duplex the turnaround. The 300 mV receiver hysteresis cleans up noisy lines — a common headache on long cable runs in industrial environments.
The 20-SSOP (0.209-inch body width, 5.30 mm) is a fine-pitch but hand-solderable package. MSL rating is typically 1 for this family, so no bake-out needed before reflow unless the bag has been open for weeks. The narrow body means the part sits low and doesn't shadow adjacent components during hot-air rework.