The MIPI Alliance completed work on A-PHY v1.0, a long-reach serializer-deserializer (SerDes) physical layer interface for automotive applications. Pending member review, official adoption is expected within the next 90 days.
“A-PHY is a major milestone in the industry. MIPI is leading the charge to provide new interconnects that will help make cars safer and smarter for their operators,” said Joel Huloux, chairman of MIPI Alliance. “By offering a long-reach automotive wired connectivity solution, MIPI is building on its successful track record in the mobile industry, including its camera and display interface specifications, which are already prevalent in cars today.”
A-PHY will help the automotive industry accelerate the availability of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving systems (ADS) and other surround-sensor applications, including cameras and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) displays.
A-PHY is being developed as an asymmetric data link in a point-to-point topology, with high-speed unidirectional data, embedded bidirectional control data and optional power delivery, all over a single cable. Version 1.0 offers several core benefits:
- Simpler system integration and lower cost: native support for devices using MIPI CSI-2 and DSI-2, ultimately eliminating the need for bridge ICs
- Long reach: up to 15 meters
- High performance: 5 speed gears (2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 Gbps), with a roadmap to 48 Gbps and beyond
- High reliability: ultra-low 1E-18 packet error rate for unprecedented performance over the lifetime of a vehicle
- High resilience: ultra-high immunity to EMC effects by virtue of a unique PHY-layer retransmission system
