O' say, can you "C"? Breaking down the USB type C connector

USB - Universal Serial Bus. Let’s break that down.

Universal. It works everywhere and for everyone.

Serial. We’re cramming extra data into the stream relative to parallel busses.

Bus. A bunch of wires.

So we have a bunch of wires with a bunch of data doing a bunch of things. It is a neat trick if you can pull it off. USB has been around for awhile and is most recognized as the connector format for the thumb drives, of which you probably have a few - or many if you get out to the trade shows and pick up the freebies. Your phone may have the micro-version, or it may have the even more micro USB type-C connector.

The wondrous thing about these gizmos is their ability to multitask. It is a charge port. It is a data port. It is a display port. It slices. It dices. But wait, there is more! There is no penalty for plugging it in upside down because it is not polarized like all of its predecessors.

I can honestly say that I was working on the USB-C protocol before USB-C was cool. Google was/is part of the specification development consortium. My first encounter was in early 2015 trying to create the little piece of circuitry between the wire and the plug. This bit is shrouded inside the charger assembly side of the equation. The board connectors came right after that little piece.

Now that I'm getting published by Cadence Design Systems (thanks Dan) the article continues here.

https://www.orcad.com/resources/blog/oh-say-can-you-c-%E2%80%93-grappling-usb-type-c-connector