Valens Collaborates with Sony to Develop and Integrate MIPI A-PHY Technology into Next-Generation Products within the Automotive Industry

Valens, the semiconductor company that is pushing the boundaries of
connectivity, today announced that it has started an evaluation with Sony
Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (Sony) to develop and integrate MIPI
A-PHY technology into next-generation image sensor products.

A-PHY is a long-reach serializer-deserializer (SerDes) physical layer
interface for long-reach, ultra-high-speed automotive applications. It was
released by the MIPI Alliance in September 2020 as a standard seeking to
simplify the integration of cameras, sensors and displays in vehicles, while
also incorporating functional safety and security. Valens will be the first
company to market with A-PHY compliant chipsets, having recently completed a
successful tapeout of its VA7000 chipset family

“It’s highly important for Sony to integrate the cutting-edge technology
into our image sensors, and A-PHY serializer integration will provide
significant benefits for our customers,” said Kenji Onishi, General Manager,
Automotive Business Department, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation.
“The MIPI ecosystem is growing quickly, and we’re happy to be early adopters
of this automotive connectivity standard. Valens is in a leading position
with A-PHY, which is why it is so important for us to start this
collaboration. We believe future models will have even higher resolutions.
In addition, our company is preparing to integrate several features into
their next-generation sensors, including metadata output, higher framerate,
and wider bit depth – all of which will require an ultra-high-speed,
long-reach connectivity solution such as MIPI A-PHY. We will continue to
support not only A-PHY but also D-PHY, proprietary interfaces, and
open-standard interfaces.”

Integration of A-PHY into system components such as image sensors and SoCs
will eliminate the need for proprietary bridge solutions meant to extend
CSI-2 and DSI-2 data streams, which would simplify car architecture and
lower total system cost. A-PHY offers data rates as high as 16 Gbps with a
roadmap to 48 Gbps and beyond, with an unprecedented ultra-low packet error
rate (PER) of 10-19 and high noise immunity to electromagnetic interference.

“We’re happy to support Sony in bringing optimized MIPI A-PHY architecture
to the automotive industry,” said Gideon Kedem, Valens SVP and Head of
Automotive. “A-PHY is marching steadily towards widespread market adoption –
we expect A-PHY to be the dominant connectivity solution on the road in cars
around the world within a matter of years, and this evaluation marks yet
another milestone for MIPI A-PHY to that end.”

About Valens

Valens is a leading provider of semiconductor products, pushing the
boundaries of connectivity by enabling long-reach, high-speed video and data
transmission for the audio-video and automotive industries. Valens’ EmmyR
award-winning HDBaseT technology is the leading standard in the professional
audio-video market with tens of millions of Valens’ chipsets integrated into
thousands of HDBaseT-enabled products. Valens Automotive is a key enabler of
the evolution of autonomous driving, providing chipsets that are on the road
in vehicles around the world. The underlying technology has been selected to
become the basis for the new standard for automotive connectivity. For more
information, visit https://www.valens.com/