1 Introduction

Modern vehicle cabins increasingly offer USB Type-C ports that deliver both power and high-resolution video to passenger devices — but doing so inside a vehicle means solving two different problems at once.

The first is power and thermal: the automotive 12V rail is unregulated and can sag or spike with cranking and load-dump events, yet the system must still convert up to 140W across two ports inside a compact, airflow-limited enclosure. Conversion efficiency and thermal margin are tightly linked here and may require derating at high temperature or low input voltage to keep components within safe limits.

The second is signal integrity: the video path must carry a high-speed DisplayPort signal through connector transitions and re-driving circuitry, then over a longer automotive cable run to a remote display — all while sharing a board with a high-current switching converter. Noise immunity and layout discipline are as critical here as efficiency is to the power path.

This application note presents a validated reference design addressing both challenges in a single two-port, 140W USB-C Power Delivery system with DisplayPort Alt Mode support, giving automotive engineers a proven starting point for digital cockpit and infotainment USB-C implementations.