Hello I am designing a custom Arduino to be placed on my PCB. The project will use multiple RFIDs and other sensors through SPI and I2C. I was wondering if I could use CP2102 instead of the ATMEGA16U2 and have it work similarly to the Arduino mega rev3?
Absolutely. It is USB/serial transceiver you will need, right? CP2102, FT232RL, CH340 are very common with the same functionality and many others of course. In comparison, the ATmega16U2 is general MCU with USB feature. It is program which makes USB/serial transceiver from it.
In fact, older genuine Arduino UNO and Mega version were with FT232RL. Nano still have it. Chinese clones come usually with CH340 but also with CP2102.
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Yes I believe so, im connecting it to a ATMEGA2560
Yes. It was like rhetorical question. 
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Gotchu, thank you!
The disadvantage of not using a 16u2 is that you will not be able to load alternative firmware onto the USB/Serial chip that would cause it to "identify" as some other USB device (mouse/keyboard, MIDI interface, etc.) Since it sounds like your application wouldn't use that capability, pretty much any USB/Serial chip will work.
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Okay gotchu, do you have any advice on a usb bus I could use to power and connect to cp2102?
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