Industry Expert Blogs

This article describes the verification process of the ARASAN MIPI® CSI-2-RX IP core using Questa® VIPs by Mentor, A Siemens Business.

MIPI CSI-2 Protocol

MIPI Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2) provides an interface between a peripheral device (such as a camera module) and a host processor (such as a baseband or application engine). It is mostly used in the mobile and automotive industries. High performance and low power are the key features of this protocol.

MIPI CSI-2 provides two high-speed serial data transmission interface options. The first option, which is referred to as the D-PHY physical layer option, uses a differential interface with one 2-wire clock lane and one or more 2-wire data lanes. The second high-speed data transmission interface option, which is referred to as the C-PHY physical layer option, uses one or more unidirectional 3-wire serial data lanes, each of which has its own embedded clock.

ARASAN MIPI CSI-2 Receiver IP

The Arasan MIPI CSI-2 Receiver IP provides a standard, scalable, low-power, and high-speed interface that supports a wide range of high image resolutions. It is compliant with the MIPI CSI-2 v1.3 specification and supports D-PHY v1.2 and MIPI C-PHY v1.1.

Arasan offers C-PHY in a combination configuration that supports both the C-PHY interfaces and the D-PHY interfaces. This IP connects to D-PHY or C-PHY through the PHY-Protocol Interface (PPI) interface that is compliant to the D-PHY and C-PHY specifications. Most of the PPI signals are common for D-PHY and C-PHY except for a few additional signals in each mode. The usage of PHYs is selected by simple programming based on the use case.

Arasan CSI-2 Rx IP, CSI-2 Tx IP, D-PHY IP, and C-PHY IP are silicon-proven and currently used in MIPI Protocol Analyzers and Production Test Applications. Mentor Questa® VIP further enhances Arasan IP compliance to the MIPI Specifications, enabling the IP to meet the stringent requirement of compliance test applications.

Click here to read more ...