STMicroelectronics simplifies sustainable product design with USB Type-C® Power Delivery software for STM32 microcontrollers

STMicroelectronics’ latest X-CUBE-TCPP software pack enhances the Company’s portfolio of USB Type-C^® port-protection ICs and STM32 interface IP (intellectual property) to simplify product designs leveraging the USB Power Delivery specification.

USB Power Delivery supports operating modes from legacy 5V/0.5A up to 48V/5A (240-Watt) in the latest Revision 3.1 specification. The expanded power capacity inspires innovative product design and assists new sustainability legislation. One example is the recent EU agreement for USB Type-C to become the common charging port in all mobile phones, tablets, and cameras to reduce electronic waste. New product designs that leverage USB Power Delivery include power banks, smart speakers, PC peripherals, communication equipment, medical devices, POS terminals, industrial displays, and battery-powered embedded applications.

ST’s X-CUBE-TCPP software pack eases development in the STM32Cube ecosystem and provides libraries for the three USB Type-C port-protection ICs in ST’s portfolio. Namely, these are the TCPP01-M12 for sink applications, the TCPP02-M18 for source applications, and the TCPP03-M20 for dual-role power (DRP) applications.

The TCPP01-M12, TCPP02-M18, and TCPP03-M20 work with ST’s UCPD (USB Type-C and Power Delivery) interface IP featured in selected STM32G0, STM32G4, STM32L5, and STM32U5 microcontrollers (MCUs). They address USB Power Delivery in the standard power range, up to 20V-5A (100 Watt). This partitioning of the USB Type-C implementation between the MCU and port-protection IC enables a two-chip solution that saves cost, reduces complexity, and minimizes PCB space. The STM32 device also performs as the host MCU.

Additionally, X-CUBE-TCPP assists development on STM32 MCUs that do not contain the Power Delivery PHY, to streamline compliance with the USB Type-C specification.
Users can accelerate development of sink applications by using the X-CUBE-TCPP libraries with the X-NUCLEO-SNK1M1 expansion board and any STM32 Nucleo-64, NUCLEO-G071RB, NUCLEO-G474RE, or NUCLEO-L412RB-P development board containing an STM32 MCU that executes the code.

For source applications, the X-CUBE-TCPP libraries can be used with the X-NUCLEO-SRC1M1 expansion board and any STM32 Nucleo-64 development board for USB Type-C source without Power Delivery, or the NUCLEO-G071RB or NUCLEO-G474RE for USB Type-C source with Power Delivery.

The libraries for DRP applications with Power Delivery are used with the X-NUCLEO-DRP1M1 expansion board connected to a NUCLEO-G071RB or NUCLEO-G474RE.

The three boards are certified by the USB Implementers Forum and have a Test ID (TID) number that confirms compliance with the USB-C Power Delivery specification. This assures developers of interoperability with other certified products in the field. The TIDs for the boards are X-NUCLEO-SNK1M1 (TID 5205), X-NUCLEO-SRC1M1 (TID 7884), and X-NUCLEO-DRP1M1(TID 6408).

The X-CUBE-TCPP software pack is ready to download free of charge from www.st.com or GitHub.

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