level shifter based on txb0104

A level shifter based on [ti’s txb0104 would be superior to [BOB-08745 in most respects, except probably a bit pricier (budgetary price $0.70 for txb0104 in soic)

the main advantages are that it would

  • * have proper low output voltages, even for the 5V/1.8V case

    • allow any mix of directions, and even allow direction changes

    • operate with low vcc down to 1.2v and high vcc down to 1.65

    • output enable pin available

    • The main shortcoming is when there are pull-up resistors–the pull-up value must be above 50k.

    I think that using the SOP package it would be possible to fit in the pinout and 0.5x0x6" space of the BOB-08745, but it won’t be pretty.

    An 8-signal version based on txb0108 would also be a possibility (budgetary price $0.80)](http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8745)](http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/txb0104.html)