One of the key challenges in the mobile industry is integrating more technologies into limited space. With the rise of foldable smartphones and VR headsets, display and camera interfaces now require higher data throughput over fewer lines. To address this, the MIPI Alliance introduced C-PHY, a new physical layer developed alongside D-PHY. C-PHY enables higher data rates with fewer wires, making it widely adapted in camera interfaces and increasingly used in displays.

To keep pace with these changes, it’s become critical to accurately analyze and implement the MIPI C-PHY interface before tape-out or prototyping. However, due to the multi-level single-ended signaling used by MIPI C-PHY transmitter (TX), traditional IBIS models are no longer sufficient to represent the C-PHY TX behavior. A new approach is needed, one that can capture silicon-level signal details.

Keysight, working closely with industry-leading customers, has developed a new model method for modeling the C-PHY transmitter properly. This new approach aims to meet the needs of engineers looking to simulate MIPI C-PHY more effectively and accurately.

In this session, we’ll share the limitations of traditional IBIS models for C-PHY, explain how the Keysight Waveform Source model serves as an alternative, and show how to build a waveform source model for accurate C-PHY simulation.