A Standalone Controller Eases Compliance With USB PD Standards
by Samantha Morehead and Sagar Khare, Maxim Integrated, San Jose, Calif., How2Power Today, Sep 15 2021
Focus:
USB Power Delivery (PD) poses new power requirement challenges because of the variety of
voltage and current combinations available—5 V, 9 V, 15 V, 20 V, 28 V, 36 V, 48 V and 1.5
A, 3 A, and 5 A, etc.—to supply the wide range of power levels the USB PD standard can
provide. This article reviews the evolution of USB power delivery up to the latest
version of the standard (USB 3.1), discusses the benefits of and system requirements for
implementing USB PD (including backwards compatibility with earlier versions of the
standard), and describes what functional blocks are needed. While some USB PD solutions
require multiple ICs, there are single-chip solutions like the MAX77958 standalone PD
controller, whose features are discussed here. This PD controller manages the power
negotiations without firmware development.
What you’ll learn:
- How to understand design requirements for implementing USB Power Delivery per USB 3.1
- How to simplify USB PD designs through use of a standalone controller
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