Rockchip RK835 & RK837 fast charger chips support USB PD 3.0, QC4+, and VOOC

Rockchip is better known for its application processors for TV boxes (RK3328), Chromebooks and other higher-end hardware (RK3399), AIoT applications (RK3566), and more, but the company has recently introduced the RK83x family with RK835 and RK837 chips designed for fast chargers compatible with USB PD 3.0 and/or Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ and BBK Electronics’ VOOC.

RK835 Specifications

• MCU sub-system – Arm Cortex-M0 with 60KB flash, 1KB RAM
• USB PD 2.0/3.0 and PSS with TID number 4325
• USB Type-C and Vconn power source
• Supports proprietary protocols
• 8-channel 10-bit, 500Hz converter speed ADC sensing voltage and 1-channel 10-bit current ADC
• All GPIOs can be configured as ADC input or edge triggering input
• DP/DM pins can be configured as UART, BC 1.2, or GPIO mode
• High-voltage endurance DP/DM and CC1/2 pins
• I2C interface with slave and master modes
• Low-power RC oscillator, 3 timers, one watchdog
• Discharge N-MOSFETs for VCC and VBUS
• Power – 18 to 100W output
• Power consumption – Less than 10na current in ultra-low power mode
• Package – QFN16L 3×3 mm

RK835 is specifications designed for USB PD 2.0/3.0 fast chargers.

RK837 specifications

• MCU sub-system – Arm Cortex-M0 with 64KB flash, 2KB RAM
• Protocol handler
  • 1x USB Type-C port and 1x USB Type-A port
  • Support for USB PD 3.0, Type-C PHY, with TID number 5141
  • Support for Quick Charge 4+ (QC4+), report number: QC20210303222
  • Integrates BMC transceiver and PHY
  • Supports proprietary protocols via MCU
  • DP/DM pins can be configured as UART, BC 1.2, or GPIO mode
  • DP2/DM2 pins can be configured as BC 1.2, or GPIO mode
• CCCV controller
  • 3 to 22V, 10mV/step (11-bit) CV output
  • 0.1A to 12A, step 12mA (5 mOhm Rsense)
• ADC
  • 10-channel voltage ADC
  • 1-channel current ADC
• Other functions
  • N-MOSFET driver for output control
  • “Quickly discharge” N-MOSFET
  • VBUS discharge circuit
  • Low-power RC oscillator, 3 timers, one watchdog
  • Protection – Over-current (OCP), over-voltage (OVP), under-voltage (UVP), over-temprature (OTP)
• Package – QFN24 4×4 mm

Rockchip RK837 adds one more USB port and is suitable for USB PD 3.0, Quick Charge 4+, and VOOC fast chargers.

Rockchip RK835 & RK837 chips were announced at the end of April on Rockchip website (Chinese only), but I could also find some partial specifications on Baidu. The chips were recently showcased in Xiamen at the 5th JiWei Semiconductor Summit (JWSS 2021) together with an RK837 evaluation kit.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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