To back up the company’s expertise in creating advanced semiconductor technology for USB power delivery purposes, FTDI Chip has now announced a new development solution. This hardware is based on its FT4233HP multi-channel interface ICs.
The new FT4233HP high-speed USB serial/FIFO evaluation board will enable engineers to get started much quicker on implementing USB power delivery arrangements. This could be for the retrofitting of this functionality into legacy designs that are already in operation, or in relation to new items of equipment they are prototyping.
The board has 138.5mm × 77mm dimensions, with a pair of Type-C power delivery ports incorporated into it. The first of these ports is capable of covering both sink (receiving power) and source (providing power) roles. The second port serves only as a sink. Both of these ports are able to support the 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V and 20V power delivery object (PDO) profiles – as defined in revision 3.0 of the USB power delivery specification. These profiles may be configured via attachment of an external EEPROM memory, with LED indicators signifying which PDO profile is in use.
While the first port offers USB data transmission plus power delivery, the second port only has power delivery capabilities. A power pass-through function has also been included, with the input power on the second port being passed to the first port. External control of power delivery policy can be achieved using the on-board I2C interface and the GPIO pins. These allow adjustment of the voltage regulator and the load switch.
The FT4233HP evaluation board will be available in Q4 2021.