Enhanced Reversible USB Connector (eUSB-R) for ESD/EOS Components Removal in USB4/USB3 High Speed Interconnects

This paper proposed a novel connector structure, namely the enhanced reversible USB (eUSB-R) receptacle connector, that could prevent the Electrostatic Discharge/Electrical Overstress protection (ESD/EOS) event cause by the plugging angle of conventional USB-C connector. With a protrude and/or concave structure that eUSB-R connector has, it not only retains the "single/universal connector" as well as "reversibility" properties of USB-C, it also does not introduce any additional manufacturing cost, nor any implies any complication to the platform design for USB4/USB3 buses. Furthermore, with eUSB-R, the existing ESD/EOS short circuit protection on USB data lanes could be removed, leads to significant platform cost saving and layout area optimization. It is also shown that signal integrity performance improvement can be achieved with lower insertion loss and refection noise as the outcome of the ESD/EOS components removal.