Testing solutions vendor Tektronix launched oscilloscope-based C-PHY Essentials software to test smartphones with camera.
The new solution allows engineers developing camera technologies using the C-PHY 1.0 interface to conduct analyses, debugging and characterization of their designs.
The use of three-level signaling that is transmitted as a single-ended signal over three wires is one of the test and measurement challenges associated with the MIPI C-PHY standard. Since the receiver sees these signals as differential, this requires a clock recovery mechanism to plot the eye diagram for analysis.
“With an up to 17.1 Gb/s data rate over a nine-wire interface, C-PHY provides better performance for high megapixel count image sensors along with low power consumption,” said Brian Reich, general manager, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix.
OmniVision Technologies, a developer of digital imaging solutions, is implementing oscilloscope-based C-PHY Essentials software to validate and characterize the C-PHY interface used on the two 20+ megapixel image sensors at OmniVision’s new OV23850 and OV21840, being designed for the next generation of flagship smartphones, said Tektronix.
“With the help of Tektronix C-PHY Essentials, we were able to set up cameras utilizing the OV23850 and OV21840 sensors and confirm the C-PHY interface’s compliance with the MIPI specification,” said Paul Gallagher, senior director of marketing and business development at OmniVision.
Designers can use the C-PHY Essential software for receiver calibration through the use of the eye diagram analysis function. A user needs the ability to make various rise and fall time measurements and calibrate to a stressed eye with different impairments such as DCD as recommended by the C-PHY compliance test specification.
The Tektronix C-PHY solution includes a four-lane C-PHY traffic generator, single-lane oscilloscope based C-PHY protocol decoder and C-PHY termination board. The traffic generator can be used for functional validation of the receiver.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
