STMicroelectronics X-CUBE-UCSI USB Type-C connector system interface library

STMicroelectronics has added a USB Type-C connector system interface (UCSI) library in the STM32Cube software ecosystem for STM32 microcontrollers (MCUs) to accelerate development of USB-C Power Delivery (PD) applications.

The X-CUBE-UCSI is a turnkey UCSI-certified solution with ready-to-use hardware and firmware examples to implement standardised communication using an STM32 MCU as a UCSI PD controller. These are designs that a customer can copy and paste, which have been optimised for its bill-of-materials (BoM).

The software lets the MCU connect to the main system processor and exchange information with the operating system using the UCSI protocol, while controlling the USB-C attachment and PD protocol. The main processor, which can be a System-on-Chip (SoC), application processor or STM32MP microprocessor, acts as the UCSI operating system policy manager (OPM). The PD controller onboard the STM32 MCU performs as UCSI platform policy manager (PPM). The necessary USB Type-C and Power delivery (UCPD) peripheral is available in various STM32 MCUs.

The software also facilitates STM32 MCU firmware programming via the main processor, in the production line as well as during the lifetime of the application. The main processor uses the UCSI driver and associated commands to exchange data with the PD controller. In addition to saving development time, this extends interoperability between USB-C devices to support the latest use cases the technology offers.

The STM32Cube expansion software helps developers to build a USB PD dual-role power (DRP) application as well as to support alternate-mode commands. More than 500 standard STM32 MCUs are now available with ST’s UCPD Power Delivery controller peripheral implemented on-chip. Moreover, the analog and digital features of STM32 MCUs provide extra flexibility as a port expander to implement additional functions not supported by the main processor.