The ST232 is a 2 driver, 2 receiver device following EIA/TIA-232 and V.28 communication standard. It is particularly suitable for applications where 12V is not available. The ST232 uses a single 5V power supply and only four external capacitors (0.1uF).

Perhaps the most common application is to interface a TTL device such as a microcontroller to an RS-232 device, such as a PC. The ST232 Generates the necessary 12V signals from a single +5 V supply.