Electronic – Will this reversible USB-A circuit work safely

circuit-designcircuit-protectionpcbusb

I'm working on a PCB USB stick with a reversible USB-A connector. This device should work reversibly with any normal USB host.

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I know that it works fine with just the topside, but I realized it could be reversible with the traces added on the bottom. It is a bit concerning though, because now the "not-used" traces will potentially short to the host-side USB shielding.

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I made this circuit that:

  • Uses diodes to prevent "top" 5V, GND and "bottom" 5V, GND from connecting to each other.
  • Zener diodes to protect from ESD
  • The FSUSB42UMX switch to choose between "top" D+/D- and "bottom" D+/D-. The select is the 5V of one of the sides with a pulldown resistor.
    • When 5V is present on the "bottom" side, then "bottom" D+/D- are selected. Otherwise, the pull down will default select to "top" D+/D-.

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Is there anything potentially still risky with this approach that I'm missing?

Would the host USB shielding ever normally be something other than Z or GND?

Is there a simpler way to do this?

Best Answer

Replace D4 and D6 with MOSFETs with the gate to the matching Vbus.

that will remove the voltage lift on ground induced by the diodes.

D3 and D5 could be replaced with P channel MOSFETS if you need the full 5V for the rest of the circuit,

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab