Electronic – Omitting USB 2.0 pins on a USB 3.1 connection

usbusb-c

I am in a situation where my project requires the use of a slip ring so wires can freely rotate. I will be limited to the number of wires that can run through it, which is a total of 12.

I have a USB 3.0 device that I want to connect through the slip ring using USB-A 3.1 and USB-C breakouts on each end. I don't need to have the redundant row/reversible plug option so I will only be working with one row (A1-A12). The device I am connecting will only be using a 3.0 port, never 2.0. Through some reading, I found that the D pins shown below exist for USB 2.0 compatibility:

USB C Connections

It seems that they are only there to transfer data if the plug is connected to a USB 2.0 port. Can I safely omit the USB 2.0 pins in this situation? Doing so would free up two wires on the slip ring which are important for connecting another device.

Best Answer

If you do not want to support BC1.2 and high speed 480Mbps, you can ignore differential pairs of USB 2.0.