STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company supporting a wide range of electronic applications and customers, is moving to realize sustainable product design simplification with USB Type-C® PD software for STM32 microcontrollers.

ST announced on the 20th that it has released the latest X-CUBE-TCPP software pack, which improves its portfolio of USB-Type-C® port protection ICs and STM32 interface IP (Intellectual Property), and supports the simplification of product design by utilizing USB PD (Power Delivery) specifications.

USB PD supports operating modes ranging from the existing 5V/0.5A to a maximum of 48V/5A (240 watts) through the latest revision 3.1 specification.

In this way, expanded power capacity facilitates the design of innovative products and enables compliance with new sustainability legislation.

For example, the EU recently agreed to use USB Type-C as a common charging port for all mobile phones, tablets, and cameras to reduce electronic waste.

New product designs utilizing USB PD include power banks, smart speakers, PC peripherals, communication equipment, medical devices, POS terminals, industrial displays, and battery-powered embedded applications.

ST's The X-CUBE-TCPP software pack facilitates development of the STM32Cube ecosystem and provides libraries for three USB Type-C port protection ICs in the ST portfolio.

This library includes TCPP01-M12 for sink applications, TCPP02-M18 for source applications, and TCPP03-M20 for DRP (Dual-Role Power) applications.

TCPP01-M12, TCPP02-M18, and TCPP03-M20 work with ST’s UCPD (USB Type-C and Power Delivery) interface IP provided in STM32G0, STM32G4, STM32L5, and STM32U5 microcontrollers (MCUs).

This handles USB PD in a standard power range of up to 20V-5A (100 watts).

With this split USB Type-C implementation between the MCU and the port protection IC, a 2-chip solution is possible, which can reduce costs and complexity and minimize PCB space.

The STM32 device also operates as a host MCU.

In addition, X-CUBE-TCPP supports development for STM32 MCUs that do not include a PD PHY, simplifying USB Type-C specification compliance.

Users can accelerate sink application development by using the X-CUBE-TCPP library with any STM32 Nucleo-64, NUCLEO-G071RB, NUCLEO-G474RE, or NUCLEO-L412RB-P development board and X-NUCLEO-SNK1M1 expansion board that includes an STM32 MCU running code.

The X-CUBE-TCPP library for source applications is available on all STM32 Nucleo-64 development boards and X-NUCLEO-SRC1M1 for USB Type-C source without PD. It can be used with expansion boards, and for USB Type-C sources with PD, it can be used with NUCLEO-G071RB or NUCLEO-G474RE.

The library for DRP applications using PD can be used with the X-NUCLEO-DRP1M1 expansion board connected to NUCLEO-G071RB or NUCLEO-G474RE.

These three boards are certified by the USB Implementers Forum and have Test ID (TID) numbers verifying compliance with the USB-C PD specification. This allows developers to ensure interoperability with other certified products in the field.

The TIDs of each board are X-NUCLEO-SNK1M1 (TID 5205), X-NUCLEO-SRC1M1 (TID 7884), and X-NUCLEO-DRP1M1 (TID 6408).

The X-CUBE-TCPP software pack can be downloaded for free from www.st.com or GitHub.