Simplifying universal serial bus connectivity with USB bridge devices

The universal serial bus (USB) interface is one of the most successful communication standards in the electronics industry. It has become the standard communication interface for many industrial and consumer applications that require connectivity to a host device. USB’s extreme ease of use coupled with robustness makes it the ideal choice of interface for many embedded applications.

However, for embedded designers, a USB implementation requires USB protocol expertise, time-consuming software and firmware development effort. Most often, designers of these embedded applications are required to provide an end solution that is highly cost effective. The simplest way to achieve this is by integrating the USB functionality in the microcontroller (MCU) along with other peripherals and memory.