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Overview of developing Windows drivers for USB Type-C connectors

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You need to write a driver for the connector if your USB Type-C system does not implement a PD state machine, or it implements the state machine but does not support UCSI over a non-ACPI transport. If it does, you can load the Microsoft-provided UCSI driver.

Flow chart showing the decision process for implementing a UcmTcpciCx client driver.

Proposed solutions

The following table recommends solutions based on hardware or firmware capabilities:

Hardware/Firmware capabilities Non-detachable Add-on card
USB Type-C connector does not have a PD state machine. Write a client driver to UcmTcpciCx.

Start with UcmTcpciCx Port Controller Client Driver		 Write a client driver to UcmCx.

Start with the UcmCx sample.
Connector is UCSI-compliant with ACPI. Load the in-box driver, UcmUcsiCx.sys and UcmUcsiAcpiClient. See USB Type-C Connector System Software Interface (UCSI) driver. N/A
Connector is UCSI-compliant without ACPI. Write a client driver to UcmUcsiCx. For more information, see Write a UCSI client driver.

Start with the UcmCx sample and replace the ACPI portions with your implementation for the required bus.		 Write a client driver to UcmCx.
Has PD state machine but is not UCSI-compliant. Write a client driver to UcmCx.

Start with the UcmCx sample.		 Write a client driver to UcmCx

Start with the UcmCx sample.

In this section

To implement the solutions proposed in the preceding table, read these topics:

Topic Description
Architecture: USB Type-C design for a Windows system Describes a typical hardware design of a USB Type-C system and the Microsoft-provided drivers that support the hardware components.
Bring up the function controller on a USB Type-C Windows system The driver for the function controller informs the operating system about the charging levels that its USB Type-C connector supports and notifies the battery subsystem when it can begin charging and the maximum amount of current the device can draw.
Bring up the dual-role controller for a USB Type-C Windows system The USB role-switch drivers (URS) are a set of WDF class extension and its client driver that handles the role-switching capability of a dual-role controller. If your system has a dual role controller, you can switch the role of the system depending on the device that is attached to the partner port of the USB Type-C connector of the system. This allows interesting scenarios such as wired docking.
Write a USB Type-C connector driver Describes the USB connector manager (UCM) that manages a USB Type-C connector and the expected behavior of a connector driver.
Write a USB Type-C port controller driver Describes how to write a the USB Type-C port controller driver that communicates with a USB Type-C connector without PD state machine.
Write a UCSI client driver Describes how to write a driver for a UCSI-compliant controller that uses non-ACPI transport.
Write a USB Type-C Policy Manager client driver The Microsoft-provided USB Type-C Policy Manager monitors the activities of USB Type-C connectors. Windows, version 1809, introduces a set of programming interfaces that you can use to write a client driver to Policy Manager. The client driver can participate in the policy decisions for USB Type-C connectors. With this set, you can choose to write a kernel-mode export driver or a user-mode driver.

See also