External usb-c hardware failure protection
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorShailendra Singh Chauhan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
USB ports such as Type-C USB-C ports in a personal computer (PC) or other computing device may be configured in dual-role port (DRP) mode. The DRP mode may provide the ability for a port to switch between providing power to an external device and receiving power from an external power source to the into the computing device. The voltage level received from an external power source is typically higher than the voltage level provided to an external device. When a USB device fails, it may apply the higher voltage level to an external device, which may cause the external device to fail. A voltage sense and device detection circuit which may be used to detect an internal failure and prevent a higher internal voltage to be applied to a USB device.
Claims18
A system comprising:
- a power delivery controller (PD) circuit configured to switchably couple a first voltage conductor to a voltage bus (VBUS) conductor on a universal serial bus (USB) port;
- a transistor group configured to switchably couple a second voltage conductor to the VBUS conductor;
- a voltage sense circuit to:
- detect a short circuit between the first voltage conductor and the VBUS conductor;
- and
- reduce a short circuit voltage between the first voltage conductor and the VBUS conductor in response to detecting the short circuit;
- and
- a pull-down transistor configured to switchably couple the transistor group to a ground, wherein reducing the short circuit voltage includes causing the pull-down transistor to couple the transistor group to the ground.
A method comprising:
- detecting a short circuit at a transistor group conductively coupled between a first voltage conductor and a first voltage conductor to a voltage bus (VBUS) conductor on a universal serial bus (USB) port, the short circuit detected at a voltage sense circuit;
- and
- reducing a short circuit voltage between the first voltage conductor and the VBUS conductor in response to detecting the short circuit,
- wherein reducing the short circuit voltage includes causing a pull-down transistor to couple the transistor group to a ground.
At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising a plurality of instructions that, responsive to being executed with processor circuitry of a computer-controlled device, cause the processor circuitry to:
- detect a short circuit at a transistor group conductively coupled between a first voltage conductor and a first voltage conductor to a voltage bus (VBUS) conductor on a universal serial bus (USB) port, the short circuit detected at a voltage sense circuit;
- and
- reduce a short circuit voltage between the first voltage conductor and the VBUS conductor in response to detecting the short circuit, wherein reducing the short circuit voltage includes causing a pull-down transistor to couple the transistor group to a ground.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.