The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 1

USB to serial chip CH340

English Data
Sheet Version: 2C
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1 Introduction
CH340 is a USB bus conversion chip, it can realize USB to UART interface or USB to printer interface.
In serial UART mode, CH340 provides common MODEM liaison signal, used to expand UART interface of
computer or upgrade the common serial device to USB bus directly. For more information on USB conversion to
printer interface please refer to the manual CH340DS2.

2 Features

● Full speed USB device interface, compatible with USB V2.0.

● Emulate standard UART interface, used to upgrade the serial peripherals, or expand UART interface via
USB bus.
● Original serial applications are totally compatible, without any modification in Windows operation system.

● Hardware full duplex serial UART interface, built-in transmit-receive buffer, supports communication baud
rate varies from 50bps to 2Mbps.
● Supports common MODEM liaison signal RTS, DTR, DCD, RI, DSR and CTS.

● Through external level conversion chip provide further RS232, RS485, RS422 interface, etc.
● CH340R supports IrDA criterion SIR infrared communication, supports baud rate varies from 2400bps to
115200bps.
● Software compatible with CH341, use driver of CH341 directly.
● Support 5V and 3.3V power supply even 3V.
● CH340C, CH340E and CH340B have built-in crystal, no external crystal, CH340B also integrates
EEPROM used to configure the serial number, etc.
● SOP-16 and SSOP-20 and MSOP-10 lead-free RoHS compliant package.
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 2

3 Package

Package shape Width of plastic Pitch of Pin Instruction of package Ordering type
SOP-16 3.9mm 150mil 1.27mm 50mil Small outline package of 16-pin CH340G
SOP-16 3.9mm 150mil 1.27mm 50mil Small outline package of 16-pin CH340C
SOP-16 3.9mm 150mil 1.27mm 50mil Small outline package of 16-pin CH340B
MSOP-10 3.0mm 118mil 0.50mm 19.7mil Shrink small outline package of 10-pin CH340E
SSOP-20 5.30mm 209mil 0.65mm 25mil Shrink small outline package of 20-pin CH340T
SSOP-20 5.30mm 209mil 0.65mm 25mil Shrink small outline package of 20-pin CH340R

Model differences:
CH340C, CH340E and CH340B have built-in crystal, no external crystal;
CH340B also has built-in EEPROM used to configure the serial number,etc.Some functions can be customized.
CH340R provides reverse polarity TXD and MODEM signals. (No spot)

4. Pins

SSOP20 SOP16 MSOP10 Pin Description (description in bracket is only about

Pin Name Pin Type
Pin No. Pin No. Pin No. CH340R)
Positive power input port, requires an external 0.1uF power
19 16 7 VCC POWER
decoupling capacitor
8 1 3 GND POWER Public ground, ground connection for USB
Connect to VCC to input external power when 3.3V power
5 4 NONE V3 POWER supply, connect to 0.1uF decoupling capacitor when 5V
power supply
CH340T/R/G: Input of crystal oscillator, connect to crystal
9 7 NONE XI IN
and capacitor
NC. NONE CH340C: No Connection, must be suspended
RST# IN CH340B: Input of external reset, active low, built-in
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 3

pull-up resistor
CH340T/R/G: Output of crystal oscillator, connect to
XO OUT
10 8 NONE crystal and capacitor
NC. NONE CH340C/B: No Connection, must be suspended
6 5 1 UD+ USB signal Directly connect to D+ data wire of USB bus
7 6 2 UD- USB signal Directly connect to D- data wire of USB bus
Forbid USB device suspending, active low, built-in pull-up
20 NONE NONE NOS# IN
resistor
Transmit asynchronous data output(reverse output for
3 2 8 TXD OUT
CH340R)
Receive asynchronous data input, built-in configurable
4 3 9 RXD IN
pull-up and pull-down resistor
MODEM liaison input signal, clear to send, active
11 9 5 CTS# IN
low(high)
MODEM liaison input signal, data set ready, active
12 10 NONE DSR# IN
low(high)
MODEM liaison input signal, ring indicator , active
13 11 NONE RI# IN
low(high)
MODEM liaison input signal, data carrier detect, active
14 12 NONE DCD# IN
low(high)
MODEM liaison output signal, data terminal ready, active
15 13 NONE DTR# OUT
low(high)
MODEM liaison output signal, request to send, active
16 14 4 RTS# OUT
low(high)
2 NONE NONE ACT# OUT USB configuration completed state output, active low
CH340T/R/G/C: Assistant RS232 enable, active high,
18 15 NONE R232 IN
built-in pull-down resistor
CH340T/E/B: Ongoing data transmission status indicator,
17 15 6 TNOW OUT
active high
CH340R:Serial mode input setting, built-in pull-up resistor,
IR# IN SIR infrared serial interface when low, common serial
interface when high
CK0 OUT CH340T: clock output
1 NONE NONE
NC. NONE CH340R:No Connection, must be suspend

5. Function Description
CH340 chip has built-in USB pull-up resistor, UD+ and UD- pins must be connected to USB bus directly.
CH340 chip has built-in power-on reset circuit. CH340B also provides low active external reset pin.
CH340G/CH340T/CH340R chips need to work with 12MHz clock signal supplied to XI pin. Generally,
clock signal is generated crystal oscillation with inverter in CH340. The peripheral circuit needs to place a crystal
of 12MHz between XI and XO, and connect to a capacitor to ground separately.
CH340C, CH340E and CH340B chip have built-in clock generator, no external crystal and oscillating
capacitor required.
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 4

CH340B chip also provides EEPROM for configuring data area, product serial number and other
information could be customized for each chip by specific software tools, configurable data area is shown in the
table below.

Byte Abbreviati
Description of chip configuration data area Default
Address on

For CH340B: Internal configuration information valid reg,

00H SIG 00H
must be 58H.
For CH340H/S: External configuration information valid
reg, must be 53H.
Invalid for other value

01H MODE Serial mode, must be 23H 23H

Specific configuration of chip,

02H CFG bit5 is used to configure product Serial Number: FEH
0= valid; 1= invalid.
Internal configuration information write protect flag，57H
03H WP 00H
imply read only, otherwise can be rewrite
Vendor ID, high byte is behind, any value. Set to 0000H or
05~04H VID 1A86H
0FFFFH implies VID and PID using vendor default value

07~06H PID Product ID, high byte is behind, any value 7523H

0AH PWR Max Power, The maximum supply current in 2mA units 31H
Serial Number, the length of ASCII string is 8, disable the
17~10H SN Serial number when the first byte is not ASCII character 12345678
(21H~7FH)
Using product
3FH~1AH PROD For CH340B: Product String, Unicode string for Product
default
description. The first byte is by total bytes (less than 26H),
description when
the next byte is 03H, Unicode string after that, using vendor
the first byte is
default description when do not meet characteristics above.
00H
Others (Reserved unit) 00H or FFH

CH340 chip supports 5V and 3.3V power voltage. When using 5V source power, the VCC pin input 5V
power and the V3 pin should connect with decoupling 0.1uF capacitor. When using 3.3V power voltage,
connects V3 with VCC, both input 3.3V power voltage, and the other circuit voltage which connected with
CH340 cannot exceed 3.3V.
CH340 supports USB device suspending automatically to save power. USB device suspend is forbidden
when NOS# is driven low.
The DTR# pin of CH340 is used as a configuration input pin before the USB configuration is complete. An
external 4.7KΩ pull-down resistor can be connected with this pin to generate default low level during USB
enumeration, apply larger supply current to the USB bus via the configuration descriptor.
In UART mode, CH340 chip contains these pins: data transfer pins, MODEM liaison signal pins and
assistant pins.
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 5

Data transfer pins contain: TXD and RXD pin. RXD keeps high when UART reception is idle.
For CH340G/C/T/R chip, If R232 pin is driven high, assistant RS232 function will be enabled, an
internal inverter will automatically insert to the RXD pin , and the pin becomes low by default. When
UART transmission is idle, the TXD pin of CH340G/C/B/T keeps high, while CH340R keeps low.
MODEM liaison signal pins contain: CTS#, DSR#, RI#, DCD# and RTS#. All these MODEM liaison
signal are controlled and function defined by computer applications.
Assistant pins contain: IR#, R232, CK0, ACT# and TNOW. When IR# is low-level, infrared serial
interface mode is enabled. R232 pin is used to control assistant RS232 function. If R232 pin is driven
high, the RXD pin input will be reversed automatically. ACT# pin is USB device configuration
complete status output (such as USB infrared adapter ready). TNOW pin indicates CH340 is
transmitting data from UART when it is high-level and becomes low when transmit over. In RS485
and other half-duplex mode, TNOW could be used to indicate UART transmit-receive status. IR# and
R232 are detected only once when chip powered on and reset.
CH340 has built-in separate transmit-receive buffer and supports simplex, half-duplex and full
duplex UART communication. Serial data contains one low-level start bit , 5, 6, 7 or 8 data bits and 1
or 2 high-level stop bits, supports odd/even/mark/space check. CH340 supports common baud rate:
50, 75, 100, 110, 134.5, 150, 300, 600, 900, 1200, 1800, 2400, 3600, 4800, 9600, 14400, 19200,
33600, 38400, 56000, 57600, 76800, 115200, 128000, 153600, 230400, 460800, 921600,
1500000, 2000000 etc.
The baud rate error of CH340 UART reception allows not less than 2%, the baud rate error of
CH340G/CH340T/CH340R UART transmission is less than 0.3%, less than 1% for CH340C/CH340E/
CH340B.
In the Windows operation system, CH340 driver can emulate standard serial port. So the mostly
original serial applications are totally compatible, without any modification.
CH340 can be used to upgrade the serial interface peripherals, or expand extra serial port for computers via
USB bus, through external level conversion chip provide further RS232, RS485, RS422 interface, etc.
Only need to add infrared transceiver, CH340R can expand SIR infrared adapter for computer via USB bus,
realize infrared communication between computer and peripheral equipment that comply with IrDA specifications.

6. Parameter
6.1 Absolute maximum rating (Critical or exceeding absolute maximum can cause permanent damage to device)

Name Parameter Description Min. Max. Units

CH340G/CH340T/CH340R -40 85 ℃
TA Ambient temperature
CH340C/CH340E/CH340B -20 70 ℃
TS Storage temperature -55 125 ℃

VCC Supply Voltage(VCC connects to power, GND to ground) -0.5 6.0 V

VIO The voltage of input or output pin -0.5 VCC+0.5 V
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 6

6.2. Electrical Parameter (test conditions: TA=25℃, VCC=5V, exclude pin connected to USB bus)
(All the current parameters should multiply the coefficient of 40% when the power is 3.3V)

Name Parameter Description Min. Typical Max. Units

V3 doesn’t connect to VCC 4.0 5 5.3

VCC Supply Voltage V
V3 connect to CH340G/T/R 2.8 3.3 3.6
VCC CH340C/E/B 3.0 3.3 3.6
Operating Supply CH340G/C/E/T/R 7 20
ICC mA
Current(Normal Operation) CH340B 6 15

Operating Supply Current(USB VCC=5V 0.1 0.2

ISLP mA
Suspend) VCC=3.3V 0.09 0.15
VIL Low-level Input Voltage -0.5 0.7 V
VIH High-level Input Voltage 2.0 VCC+0.5 V
VOL Low-level Output Voltage(4mA draw current) 0.5 V

High-level Output Voltage(3mA output current)

VOH VCC-0.5 V
(Output 100uA current during chip reset)

IUP Input current input with built-in pull-up resistor 3 150 300 uA
IDN Input current input with built-in pull-down resistor -50 -150 -300 uA
VR Restrict voltage when power-up reset 2.4 2.6 2.8 V

6.3. Sequence Parameter (test conditions: TA=25℃,VCC=5V)

Name Parameter Description Min. Typical Max. Units

FCLK Frequency of input clock in XI 11.98 12.00 12.02 MHz
TPR Reset time of power-up 20 35 50 mS

7. Application

7.1.1 USB to RS232 Converter Configuration using CH340T

The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 7

7.1.2 USB to RS232 Converter Configuration using CH340B

The image above use CH340T/CH340B (or CH340C ) to realize USB to RS232 converter. CH340 provides
common UART and MODEM signal, converts TTL to RS232 through level conversion chip U8. Port P11 is
DB9 connector, the pin and its function are the same as common PC DB9 connector, the chips similar with
U8 have MAX213/ADM213/SP213/MAX211 etc.
U8 and C46/C47/C48/C49/C40 could be removed when realize USB to TTL converter only. The signal lines in
the image only RXD、TXD and public ground need connected, the other signal lines should suspend when not use.
P2 is USB port, USB bus contains a pair of 5V power lines and a pair of data signal lines . Usually, the color of
+5V power line is red, the black one is ground. D+ signal line is green and the D- signal line is white. The max
supply current of USB bus is up to 500mA. Generally, CH340 and low power consumption USB products can use
the 5V power supplied by USB bus directly. If the USB products supply standing power by other manner, CH340
should use this power too. If the USB bus power and standing power are necessary at the same time, connect a 1Ω
resistor between USB bus 5V power line and USB products 5V standing power line, and connect the ground lines
of these two power directly.
The capacitor C8 on V3 pin is 0.1uF, used to CH340 internal power node decoupling. The capacitor C9 is
0.1uF, used to external power decoupling.
For CH340G/T/R chip, Crystal X2, capacitor C6 and C7 are used for clock oscillation circuit. The X2 is 12MHz
quartz crystal, C6 and C7 are monolithic or high frequency ceramic capacitors with 22pF. If X2 is ceramic with low
cost, C6 and C7 must use the recommended value of crystal manufacturer and generally is 47pF. For the crystal
which is difficult to oscillate, halved value is suggested for C6.
For CH340C/E/B chip, crystal X2 and capacitor C6, C7 are not required.
When designing the PCB, pay attention to: decoupling capacitor C8 and C9 must keep near to connection pin
of CH340; makes sure D+ and D- signal lines are parallel and supply ground lines or pour copper beside them to
decrease the interference from outside signal; the signal lines relevant to XI and XO should be kept as short as
possible. In order to lessen the high frequency interference, around the ground wire or pour copper around the
relevant components.

7.2. USB to RS232 Converter Configuration (3-wire)

The image below is USB to 3-wire RS232 converter design which is the most basic and most commonly used,
U5 uses MAX232/ICL232/SP232 etc.
The Data Sheet of CH340 (the first) 8

7.3 USB to RS232 Converter Configuration (Simplified version using R232)

The image above is USB to RS232 converter design too, the function of this circuit is the same with 7.2 section
except the range of output RS232 is narrower. When R232 pin is driven high, the assistant RS232 function will be
enabled, just need to add some diodes, transistors, resistors and capacitors, the special level conversion chip U5 in
section 7.2 could be replaced and the hardware cost is lower.

7.4 USB to Infrared Adapter

The image above is USB to infrared adapter design is composed with USB convert IrDA infrared chip
CH340R and infrared transceiver U14 (ZHX1810/HSDL3000 etc).The resistor R13 is used to weaken influence of
large current in infrared transmitting. The current limiting resistor R14 should be adjusted according to the
manufacturer’s recommended value of the infrared transceiver U14.

7.5. USB to RS485 Converter Configuration

The TNOW pin can be used to control DE (high active send enable) and RE# (low active receive enable)
pin of RS485 transceiver.