System-level coexistence impact of USB type-C and type-A connectors with WiFi radio

Abstract

In this paper, system-level coexistence impact of USB type-C connector with WiFi radio is assessed in comparison to USB type-A. As data rate increases and small form factor is highly demanded, adoption rate of USB Type-C connector has been substantially increasing. As compared to USB-A connector, USB-C connector has not been extensively investigated for RFI risk and coexistence impact of USB-C and WiFi radio. Therefore, radiated RFI noise and WiFi throughput of USB-C connector is characterized and compared to USB-A connector. The USB-C RFI risk assessment shows that 20dB RFI reduction realizes 180% throughput improvement as compared to one of the USB-A connector. The results demonstrate that RFI-shielded USB type-C connector has much less impact on wireless communication than USB-A, resulting in wireless performance improvement in mobile computer platforms.