Display units with multiple screens are increasingly being installed in vehicle cockpits. The semiconductor manufacturer Rohm has now developed a family of SerDes ICs to control them – the BU18TL82-M serialiser and the BU18RL82-M deserialiser. Unlike common SerDes ICs, which must be connected in pairs for each video transmission, Rohm’s new BU18RL82-M deserialiser can be connected in series to transmit video over multiple wire paths with just a single serialiser. This reduces the number of connectors and cables and simplifies the video transmission paths. This reduces both system costs and the risk of failure. The chips are also able to monitor the correct transmission of video data from the SoC to the displays by comparing CRC values. This feature supports functional safety in automotive applications.
“Due to technological advances in the automotive sector – including electronic mirrors or LCDs in instrument clusters – the number of panels installed per vehicle has increased, and with it the complexity of the video transmission paths. As this implies higher system costs and a greater risk of failure, the challenge has been to simplify the video transmission paths as much as possible,” explains Stefan Drouzas, Senior Application Marketing Manager at Rohm. “At the same time, it is important to integrate functional safety features, as frozen video in electronic mirrors and image errors in instrument clusters can lead to serious accidents,” Stefan Drouzas continues.
The new chips address these challenges with daisy-chain connectivity and end-to-end data monitoring. In addition, the optimised transmission rate, an integrated spread spectrum function and noise peak shifting minimise power consumption and reduce noise.
The new BU18xL82-M series is qualified according to the AEC-Q100 standard and ensures high reliability in automotive applications. The BU18TL82-M serialiser supports both OpenLDI and MIPI DSI interfaces. It is therefore suitable for a wide range of corresponding SoCs.
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