MIPI Alliance Launches M-PHY v1.0 + UniPro v1.4 Specifications

Click here for more information - www.mipi.org/mphyunipro

The PHY Working Group is chartered to specify high-speed physical layer designs to support multiple application requirements. The first specification developed by the PHY WG was targeted primarily to support the requirements of camera and display applications. The resulting standard, D-PHY, is a low-power, differential signaling solution with a dedicated clock lane and one or more (scalable) data lanes. In addition to supporting MIPI CSI-2 and DSI standards, D-PHY also supports MIPI's emerging UniPro specification. To support longer term requirements for more advanced applications, the PHY WG is now developing a higher speed, embedded clock design, called M-PHY^SM.

D-PHY

The physical layer, or PHY, is the heart of any advanced, serial interconnect standard. Very different peripherals often share similar requirements at the PHY level. Recognizing this, MIPI® developed a single D-PHY specification as a re-usable physical layer solution upon which MIPI camera interfaces, display panel interfaces, and general-purpose high-speed/low-power interfaces could be based. This helped streamline the development of multiple standards in MIPI, but also benefits the companies implementing these interfaces in semiconductor products, since much of the PHY engineering investment can be re-used on subsequent designs.
 

MIPI D-PHY delivers up to 1Gbps per lane via an advanced source-synchronous, differential SLVS design which is scalable to the number of lanes required by the application. It meets the demanding requirements of low-power, low-noise-generation, and high-noise immunity which mobile phone designs demand.
 

M-PHY^SM

The PHY Working Group has successfully launched M-PHY v1.0, which is currently gaining traction in the market. The group continues its work on M-PHY and anticipates that next generation versions will be available later in 2011.

MIPI M-PHY is a high-frequency, low-power physical layer defined by MIPI AllianceSpecification for M-PHY^SM.  . The M-PHY can be used as a physical layer for many applications, including interfaces for display, camera, audio, video, memory, power management and communication between Baseband and RFIC. By using efficient BURST mode operation with scalable speeds, significant power savings can be obtained. Selection of signal slew rate and amplitude allows reduction of EMI/RFI, while maintaining low bit error rates.

It currently supports or will support the following MIPI Specifications: DigRF v4, CSI-3, DSI-2, Uniport-M (UniPro1.5). By special agreement with JEDEC, JC-64.1 Universal Flash Storage (UFS) will use the M-PHY physical layer and MIPI’s UniPro Specification. Most recently, in May 2011, MIPI and the USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced an agreement to facilitate the combined use of the MIPI M-PHYSM physical layer with the SuperSpeed USB protocol and software layers to produce the SuperSpeed Inter-Chip (SSIC) specification.

Please refer to the evolution graph for more information about the status.
 

History and Roadmap

Working Group Chair

Ken Drottar, Intel

Working Group Vice-Chair

Cedric Bertholom, ST-Ericsson

George Brockelhurst, Mindspeed

Contributing Companies

Agilent, Analog Devices, Anyka Cayman Corp., Aptina Imaging, Arasan Chip Systems, ARM Limited, Arteris, ATI Technologies, Inc., Avago Technologies, Bitwave Semiconductors, Broadcom, Cadence, California Micro Devices, Core Logic, Cosmic Circuits, DGIST, Ericsson, Fairchild Semiconductor, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Freescale Semiconductors, GCT Semiconductors, Hirose Electric, Hynix, Ibiden, Icera, Infineon Technologies, Intel, Philips, Leadis, LG Electronics, Lauterbach, LeCroy, MagnaChip, Marvell, LGE, Matsushita Electric, Micron Technology, MCCI Corporation, Mindspeed, Mitsumi Electric, Mixel, Motorola, Mtekvision, Nanotech Semiconductor, National Semiconductor, Renesas/NEC, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Nvidia, OmniVision, Omron, Palm, Panasonic, Renesas, RF Micro Devices, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, ROHM, Sandisk, Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, Silicon Line, Skyworks, Solomon System, Sony, SonyEricsson, SMSC, STMicroelectronics, ST-Ericsson, Synopsys, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Toshiba Corporation, Transchip, Tyco Electronics, Virage Logic, WiSpry, Xponent, Testronics