Teardown of ABB 18W 4 USB-ports Fast charging socket

In the charging market, most of chargers are independently designed with external power supply. This will take up some space and look untidy, it’s not suitable for some high-end places such as star hotels and luxury villas .

ABB, a high-end switch brand among the world's top 500 companies, has developed a new four-bit output USB charging socket based on market demand and ABB brand advantages.The charging socket equipped with four 2A2C USB ports and only one data cable needed for charging, which is very convenient. Let’s take it apart to see the internal design.

• Product Appearance

The packaging box adopts a red and white color, with the ABB logo printed in the upper right corner, and the overall design is very simple.

The parameter is printed on the side.

Open the box and wrap the socket in a plastic bag to prevent dust.

The Packing list , including USB sockets, wall nails, and product certification.

The white shell is made of PC flame retardant material with glossy paint process. The white shell  is square and flat. The lower right corner of the socket with ABB logo, and the center is equipped with four 2A2C USB ports. 

The shell is black and is fixed to the white shell with a bolt connection.

The parameter information is marked on the black shell

The ChargerLAB POWER-Z KT002 shows one of the USB-C output protocols supports Apple 2.4A, Samsung 5V/2A and DCP protocols, as well as QC2.0/3.0, AFC, and FCP fast charging protocols.

The PDO message shows the USB-C port also supports the USB PD3.0 fast charging standard, with five sets of fixed voltage levels: 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A, 15V/1.2A, 20V/0.8A, and 3.3-5/3A and 3.3-11 V/2A.

In addition, The KT002 shows another USB-C port also supports Apple 2.4A, Samsung 5V/2A, DCP, QC0/3.0, AFC, FCP and other protocols.

And the voltage levels of the two USB-C ports are exactly the same.

The KT002shows the output protocol of USB-A supports the Samsung 5V/2A and DCP protocols.

Another USB-A port was found to only support Samsung 5V/2A and DCP protocols.

• Teardown

Remove the screws to separate the body shell, the USB module was placed in the groove of the black plastic shell.

The USB module is divided into two PCB boards for input and output, and the boards are connected and powered by pin headers.

Separate the two PCB boards, and there is a black insulation board between the input components and the output circuit board.

The front of the input terminal clearly show a three-way circuit design. Each input terminal of the three-way circuit is equipped with an I-shaped inductor and two high-voltage capacitors for filtering. In addition, the USB-C circuit can see the power supply capacitor, PWM master control chip, and Y capacitor.

The back of input PCB board, equipped with three rectifier bridges, two optocouplers, and a PWM master control chip with a USB-A circuit.

The back of output PCB board, the right side is two USB-C ports with synchronous rectifier output circuit, the design layout is exactly the same; the upper left corner is USB-A with secondary synchronous rectifier chip.

Output terminal, the boundary between USB-C circuit and USB-A circuit is obvious and the distance between them is large for easy use.

For easy understanding, the ABB four-bit output USB charging socket can be regarded as a collection of two single C-port chargers and a dual A-port charger. Both C-port chargers adopt a typical architecture of switching power supply with a wide range output, and the secondary protocol chip controlling the output voltage.

Even the three circuits are integrated, the layout is very simple and easy to distinguish because of the use of highly integrated application . And the two USB-C circuits design and materials used are exactly the same. Let’s take a look at each components,and starting from the input terminal.

The blue terminal blocks.

The specification of the delay fuse is 3.15A 250V.

Varistor, 10D431K, for input over-voltage protection.

USB-C1 Circuit Analysis:

The input end uses the WRABS20M soft bridge from Shenzhen World Industrial Co., Ltd. The soft bridge can reduce the diode junction capacitance to achieve very little harmonic oscillation through a soft recovery curve and smooth turn-off characteristics. 

World WRABS20M specification.

ChargerLAB found that POWER4 18W USB PD fast charger, Baseus 18W USB PD fast charger, white brand Apple 18W USB PD charger are using World soft recovery bridge.Meanwhile, World soft bridge series products are also used in dozens of products such as OPPO 50W biscuit GaN fast charger, Nubia 1A1C 45W GaN Fast charger, Locke 65W GaN PD fast charger, and Mcdodo 2C1A 65W GaN fast charger.

1. shaped inductor coated heat shrink tube.

Four Pieces of Aishi high-voltage filtering electrolytic capacitors, with 400V 15μF specification for each.

Two pieces of PWM master control chip power supply capacitors 100V 10μF , also from Aishi

Lii semi LN9T33HV master control chip

Lii semi LN9T33HV information.

Transformers are wrapped in insulating tape and top with informational stickers.

The Everlight EL 1019 optocoupler

Output anti-interference blue Y capacitor.

Lii semi secondary synchronous rectifier chip LN5S21A, with built-in synchronous rectifier MOS and controller, built-in MOS withstand voltage of 105V, conduction resistance of 10mΩ.

Detail specifications of LN5S21A from Lii semi

The USB PD protocol chip uses Hynetek HUSB350.

Hynetek HUSB350 information.

USB-C port VBUS switch tube with screen printing 7409.

Output filtering solid capacitor 25V 470μF.

USB-C socket, vertical through-hole welding.

USB-C2 Circuit Analysis:

Input terminal World WRABS20M soft bridge.

1. shaped inductor coated heat shrink tube.

Lii semi LN9T33HV master control chip.

Transformer.

Everlight EL 1019 optocoupler.

Output anti-interference blue Y capacitor.

Lii Semi secondary synchronous rectifier chip LN5S21A.

The USB PD protocol chip uses Hynetek HUSB350

VBUS switch tube with screen printing 7409.

Output filtering solid capacitor 25V 470μF.

USB-A Circuit Analysis:

input terminal World WRABS10M soft bridge.

1. shaped inductor coated heat shrink tube.

Two pieces of Aishi high-voltage filtering electrolytic capacitors, specification of 400V 15μF for each.

The PWM master control chip uses chipown PN8370.

The detail specification of Chipown PN8370

Transformer, with information labels attached

Output anti-interference blue Y capacitor.

The secondary synchronous rectification chip adopts chip PN8306M, with built-in 15mΩ NMOS synchronous rectification, suitable for 5V adapters.

The PN8306 detail information

Output filtering solid capacitor 6.8V 1000μF.

 USB-A socket vertical through-hole soldering.

That’s all for the teardown.

Summary of ChargerLAB

The ChargerLAB found the ABB four-output USB charging socket adopts a three-circuit design, which can be said to be a collection of three chargers. Moreover, the two USB-C circuit designs are exactly the same, and the symmetry is very obvious.

As the use of two sets of high-integration solutions and reasonable layout, even with three integrated circuits, the circuit board still looks very simple.