USB controller hub suits automotive infotainment

Meeting consumer demand for a ‘connected vehicle,’ Microchip’s FlexConnect technology allows for easy port reversals or ‘role swapping.’ The USB84604’s downstream port 1 is able to swap with the upstream host port, thus transferring the host capability to the product connected to the UCH2, such as smartphones and tablets. This allows the smartphone ecosystem of software and applications to be connected to the automobile infotainment system.

The HSIC connectivity, incorporating Microchip's InterChip Connectivity technology, allows the USB84604 UCH2, when connected on a circuit board, to utilise the ubiquitous USB2.0 protocol, dramatically decreasing power consumption. This power reduction is most obvious when actively transferring data, and has been measured by Microchip to be one seventh of the power consumed by a pair of traditional USB2.0 physical-layer transceivers.

The 4-port USB84604 UCH2 can attach to an upstream port as a full speed hub or as a full/high speed hub. When connected to a high speed host, the four downstream-facing ports can operate at 1.5, 12 or 480Mb/s.

Additionally, the USB84604’s integrated battery-charger-detection circuitry supports downstream battery detection and charging. This provides the ability to replace external battery chargers with advanced battery-charging modes such as USB-IF Battery Charging (BC1.2) and Apple.

To ensure optimised signal strengths and robust operation in the harsh EMI environments typical of automotive applications, Microchip’s VariSense and PHYBoost technologies have also been integrated into the UCH2.

The USB84604 functionality and configurations can be loaded from external Flash. Its on-chip, One-Time-Programmable (OTP) memory can be used to load permanent configurations and its system management bus slave interface can be used to customise the functionality of the USB84604. This interface enables control of the digital and USB lines for internal testing, configuration of the hub to function with the desired options when enumerating, and the loading of custom firmware to fully unlock the features of this UCH2.

The USB84604 UCH2 also enables applications to seamlessly communicate via multiple protocols and methods, such as I2C, SPI, UART and general-purpose I/O. This enhanced functionality allows system designers to use the hub controller as a virtual fifth port. For example, if an authentication chip needed updating in the infotainment system design, that function could be easily moved from the HMI to the breakout box, minimising requalification.

The USB84604 UCH2 is supported by Microchip’s free ProTouch hub configuration software tool, available on the company's website. ProTouch software makes it easy to generate configuration settings and programme the UCH2’s internal OTP memory, or any external SPI Flash. The USB4604 Evaluation Board (EVB-USB4604), priced at $399.99, is available to enable FlexConnect applications and allow access to the UCH2’s digital pins used in I2C, GPIO and UART bridging. This EVB also contains onboard SPI Flash that enables different revisions of the silicon to be evaluated on the same PCB.

The four-port USB84604 UCH2 in a 64-pin QFN package is available today for sampling and volume production,