THine V-by-One® HS Technology Overview

V-by-One® is registered trade mark of THine Electronics, Inc.

Introduction

As the owner of V-by-One® HS technology, THine Electronics offers dozens of V-by-One® HS products for both Camera/sensor-related applications and Display-related ones.

What is V-by-One® HS? - Developed to Solve Problems

With serving Display and Camera customers in Japan for decades, THine Electronics has market proven reputation for LVDS and its next generation solution V-by-One® HS. Here are some of V-by-One® HS advantages vs. LVDS.

Lower EMI - for Reasonable Cabling

While LVDS reduces the number of lines from TTL/CMOS, both LVDS and TTL/CMOS have separate clock line (CLK) which is the cause of EMI. V-by-One® HS embeds CLK and with scrambling EMI is significantly reduced.

An EMI Test Result - LVDS has multiple spikes due to CLK.

Larger Skew Budget - for Flexible Board Layout

Also, by embedding CLK, any skew issues between CLK and data lines do no apply to V-by-One® HS. This relaxes PCB layout constraints as well as risks of video transmission malfunctioning in production.

Less Number of Lines

By serializing data and embedding CLK, the line count is significantly reduced. While LVDS serializes TTL/CMOS from 31 lines to 6 pairs, V-by-One® HS carries the same data by 1 pair, which by the way is the origin of “V-by-One” meaning Video by One pair.

Note: Serializing is not compressing. Thus, there is no compression-induced delay.

Longer Cable length

Larger Skew Budget and lower EMI allows longer cable length. While MIPI CSI-2 is limited to 30cm and LVDS is limited to 1m, V-by-One® HS supports lengths greater than 10m. 15m is achievable length depending on the cable quality.

Flexibility for Cabling

V-by-One® HS Standard does not strictly specify what cable to use. Thus, as long as the V-by-One® HS receiver is able to equalize, your choices can be Shielded Twisted Pair (STP), Flexible Flat Cable (FFC), or even Coaxial Cable.

More Reasonable Choices for Connectors

Larger Skew Budget and Less Line Count allows inexpensive and/or simpler connectors, which include Slip Rings that are widely used for Surveillance Cameras.

Slip Rings are used for 360 rotation. Their key components, brush-ring connection challenges high speed signal transmission.

Market-proven V-by-One® HS IC Products

Intense Support with Tools

Throughout decades of technical support, THine owns big database of all support records which allow us to support each customer in a timely manner.

Also, with the long support experience, for MIPI CSI-2 THine developed following tools to aid customers designs.

Japan Quality

THine Electronics has served video interfacing applications in TV and related consumer market since 1992, establishing outstanding reputation for its reliable products and intense support. Partnering with global reputable foundries and assembly companies, THine manages the whole manufacturing process in Japan. Some of its LVDS products are more than 20 years old. THine has never ended life of any LVDS product without providing succeeding product.

ISO 9001 : 2015 Certificate of Registration (copy) | THine Electronics, Inc.

ISO 14001 : 2015 Certificate of Registration (copy) | THine Electronics, Inc.

Is V-by-One® HS same as FPD Link III or GMSL? - Similar, but different.

If you wondered if V-by-One® HS is similar to Texas Instruments’ FPD Link III or Maxim(an Analog Devices company)’s GMSL, you have overviewed V-by-One® HS technology quite accurately! Yes, V-by-One® HS, FPD Link III, and GMSL are all categorized as CML-based data transmission protocols, but V-by-One® HS is unique in following aspects.

Separation of Video and Back Channel interfaces - Best for debugging and contact-less transmission

FPD Link III and GMSL may look simple when you see their Serializers output Video and Back Channel (e.g., bidirectional camera control signals) are merged inside of the ICs as there is only 1 pair of pins that covers the 2 different protocols. However, when you have SerDes transmission/communication issues trying to find the cause, you will find the simplicity of IC interface is not helpful for your debugging work. For example, if your vision system stops video transmission when you increase the camera resolution, the ‘consolidated’ pins would make it impossible to tell whether the issue cause is due to higher speed video transmission or due to bidirectional communication malfunctioning. Having Video path (Main-Link) and Back Channel interface separately, V-by-One® HS products, it is easy to probe the pins and identify the cause of issues.

Also, as the Main-Link is standalone without embedding or overlaying different signals, unique components for gigabit signals can be used with V-by-One® HS. For example, there are connection solutions called Contactless Connectivity or 60GHz Contactless Products, which V-by-One® HS is compatible with. One PoC example can be found here.

TI’s DS90UB953A-Q1 does not have a Back Channel Pin. Instead, it is embedded to FPD-Link III interface. (www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ds90ub953a-q1.pdf)

THine’s THCV241A has separate I/O for Back Channel (Sub-Link).

Video Replication Mode

One of unique functions is Replication (Distribution) mode. Not only some of THine’s Serializers but also Deserializers have this function, allowing camera video logging and/or extra output for secondary purpose, such as maintenance/temporary output.



THine to License V-by-One® HS under a Strategic Partnership Program

One of THine’s goals is for its customers to design reliable products with THine’s IC parts and go to market as quickly as possible. From that perspective, THine is open to enter a strategic partnership regarding V-by-One® HS integration with OEM companies as well as semiconductor companies. If you are interested, please contact THine Solutions.

Is V-by-One® HS same as eDP? - Simpler and more flexible.

Data Rate Flexibility

While embedded Display Port (eDP) needs data rate to be fixed at one of some options (e.g., 2.7, 5.4Gbps), V-by-One® HS data rate can be any between 600Mbps and 4.0Gbps per lane even during the system is working. This is to support multiple video sources which do not necessarily have the same data rate. In such frequency change, THine’s V-by-One® HS Receiver ICs promptly recognize it and align with the Transmitter IC.

Simpler Block

V-by-One® HS Block Diagram and eDP Block Diagram

eDP uses Link CLK, not Pixel CLK, which requires an asynchronous block. V-by-One® HS uses only Pixel CLK allowing the system block simpler.

Lower EMI

eDP uses Down Spread SSC, while V-by-One® HS uses Center Spread SSC causing less EMI.

Resolution Scalability

While eDP defines its maximum lane count, V-by-One® HS has no limit, supporting higher resolutions and refresh rates, e.g., 4K120, 8K60, or even more.