Leopard Imaging to offer camera module based on Valens VA7000 MIPI A-PHY chipsets

Since its release by the MIPI Alliance, the A-PHY standard, also adopted by the IEEE in 2021, has garnered significant momentum within the automotive industry. There is a sizable number of automotive OEMs, Tier 1s and Tier 2s evaluating Valens Semiconductor’s A-PHY-compliant VA7000 chipsets for potential integration into their Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) platforms.

As a partner for automotive SoC vendors, Leopard Imaging will serve as a design house for machine vision, ADAS, and autonomous systems based on A-PHY. The new product by Leopard Imaging will be the first off-the-shelf A-PHY camera module on the market, further simplifying the integration of MIPI A-PHY and Valens VA7000 chipsets into cars. The camera module will include an advanced automotive sensor, and the company will offer the module with an A-PHY deserializer board connected to a standard processor-based compute unit. Leopard Imaging plans on adding additional sensors and drivers to support other processors in response to market requirements, all connected with Valens Semiconductor VA7000 chipsets.

“The MIPI A-PHY ecosystem continues to gain very strong momentum in the market,” said Gideon Kedem, SVP and Head of Automotive at Valens Semiconductor. “Leopard Imaging is a global market leader for image-based systems in automotive and machine vision, and we’re confident that their new module will help spur market adoption of A-PHY-based ADAS and autonomous solutions.”

“We’ve seen strong demand for MIPI A-PHY-based connectivity solutions, which is why it was so important for us to partner with Valens Semiconductor and to add their VA7000 A-PHY chipset’s capabilities to our camera module portfolio,” said Bill Pu, CEO at Leopard Imaging. “The new connectivity standard offers a number of key technological breakthroughs – including in bandwidth, link distance, and resilience to Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) – all of this fuels our expectation that this module will generate significant interest from our automotive customers and partners.”