The ST485A is a low power, high speed transceiver for RS-485 and RS-422 communications. The device contains one driver and one receiver in half duplex configuration. The ST485A draws 3 mA (typ.) of supply current when unloaded or fully loaded with disabled drivers. It operates from a single 5 V supply.

Driver is short-circuit current limited and is protected against excessive power dissipation by thermal shutdown circuitry that place the driver outputs into a high-impedance state. The receiver input has a fail-safe feature that guarantees a logic high output if both inputs are open circuit.

The ST485A is designed for bi-directional data communications or multipoint bus transmission lines.