The Mixel MIPI D-PHY IP (MXL-DPHY) is a high-frequency low-power, low cost, source-synchronous, physical layer compliant with the MIPI® Alliance Standard for D-PHY. (Learn more about Mixel’s MIPI ecosystem at Mixel MIPI Central which gives you access to Mixel’s best of class MIPI ecosystem supply chain partners.) Although primarily used for connecting cameras and display devices to a core processor, this MIPI PHY can also be used for many other applications. It is used in a master-slave configuration, where high-speed signals have a low voltage swing, and low-power signals have large swing. High-speed functions are used for high-speed data traffic while low-power functions are mostly used for control.
The D-PHY is partitioned into a Digital Module – CIL (Control and Interface Logic) and a Mixed Signal Module. It is provided as a combination of Soft IP views (RTL, and STA Constraints) for Digital Module, and Hard IP views (GDSII/CDL/LEF/LIB) for the Mixed Signal Module. This unique offering of Soft and Hard IP permits architectural design flexibility and seamless implementation in customer-specific design flow.
The CIL module interfaces with the protocol layer and determines the global operation of the lane module. The interface between the D-PHY and the protocol is called the PHY-Protocol Interface (PPI).
During normal operation, the data lane switches between low-power mode and high-speed mode. Bidirectional lanes can also switch communication direction. The change of operating mode or direction requires enabling and disabling certain electrical functions. These enable and disable events do not cause glitches on the lines that would otherwise result in detections of incorrect signal levels. Therefore, all mode and direction changes occur smoothly, ensuring proper detection of the line signals.
Mixel’s D-PHY is a complete PHY, silicon-proven at multiple foundries and multiple nodes. This MIPI PHY is fully integrated and has analog circuitry, digital, and synthesizable logic. Our D-PHY is built to support the MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI) and Display Serial Interface (DSI) using the PHY Protocol Interface (PPI). Mixel has provided this IP in many different configurations to accommodate different applications. The Universal Lane configuration can be used to support any allowed use-case, while other configurations are optimized for many different use cases such as Transmit only, Receive only, DSI, CSI, TX+ and RX+. Both TX+ and RX+ configurations support full-speed loopback operation without the extra area associated with a universal lane configuration.
