High-speed interface apparatus and deskew method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9281935-B2
Application number	US-201414513949-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2014
Priority date	Feb 13, 2014
Publication date	Mar 8, 2016
Grant date	Mar 8, 2016

Abstract

A high-speed interface apparatus and method of correcting skew in the apparatus are provided. A high-speed transmitter includes a transmission D-PHY module that generates and transmits a clock signal through a clock channel, generates a deskew synchronous code and test data in response to a deskew request signal, transmits the deskew synchronous code followed by the test data through a data channel, and transmits a normal synchronous code followed by normal data through the data channel in normal mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A high-speed data transmitter comprising:
a transmission link module; and
a transmission D-PHY module,
wherein the transmission D-PHY module comprises:
a transmission clock generator configured to generate and transmit a clock signal through a clock channel; and
at least one transmission channel unit configured to generate a deskew synchronous code and test data and transmit the test data following the deskew synchronous code through a data channel in a deskew mode and to transmit normal data following a normal synchronous code through the data channel in a normal mode,

wherein the deskew synchronous code has a different pattern than the normal synchronous code.

2. The high-speed data transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transmission channel unit comprises:
a deskew synchronous code generator configured to generate the deskew synchronous code in response to a deskew request signal and to output the deskew synchronous code to the data channel;
a test data generator configured to generate the test data in response to the deskew request signal and output the test data following the deskew synchronous code to the data channel;
a normal synchronous code generator configured to generate and output the normal synchronous code to the data channel in the normal mode; and
a normal data processor configured to receive the normal data in parallel and convert the normal data to serial normal data in the normal mode.

3. The high-speed data transmitter of claim 2 , wherein the transmission link module comprises a deskew controller configured to generate the deskew request signal in a vertical blank period between frames.

4. The high speed data transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the normal synchronous code is “00011101” and the deskew synchronous code is “FFFFFFFF”.

5. The high-speed data transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the test data has a pattern in which 0 and 1 alternate.

6. A high-speed data receiver comprising:
a clock receiver configured to receive a clock signal through a clock channel;
a code detector configured to receive a synchronous code through a data channel and to detect whether the synchronous code is a deskew synchronous code or a normal synchronous code;
a normal data processor configured to receive serial normal data through the data channel and convert the serial normal data to parallel normal data when the synchronous code is detected as the normal synchronous code; and
a test data processor configured to receive test data through the data channel and detect an amount of skew between the clock signal and the test data using the test data when the synchronous code is detected as the deskew synchronous code.

7. The high-speed data receiver of claim 6 , wherein the normal synchronous code is “00011101” and the deskew synchronous code is “FFFFFFFF”.

8. The high-speed data receiver of claim 6 , wherein the test data has a pattern in which 0 and 1 alternate.

9. The high-speed data receiver of claim 6 , wherein the deskew synchronous code is inserted in a vertical blank period between frames.

10. The high-speed data receiver of claim 6 , wherein the test data processor sequentially delays the test data by a unit delay time, compares delayed test data with a predetermined deskew data pattern, determines pass or fail based on the compare, and detects the amount of skew based on the determination.

11. The high-speed data receiver of claim 10 , wherein the test data processor comprises:
a test data delay unit comprising a plurality of delay cells connected in series to delay the test data and output the delayed test data in response to a delay control signal;
a test data deserializer configured to convert output data of the test data delay unit to parallel data;
a comparator configured to compare the parallel data with the deskew data pattern; and
a determiner configured to determine pass or fail according to a comparison result from the comparator and to determine a deskew delay using a result of the determination.

12. The high-speed data receiver of claim 11 , wherein the normal data processor comprises:
a normal data delay unit comprising a plurality of delay cells connected in series to delay the serial normal data and output the delayed serial normal data corresponding to the deskew delay; and
a normal data deserializer configured to convert output data of the normal data delay unit to parallel data.

13. A high-speed data interface comprising:
a clock channel;
at least one data channel;
a transmitter configured to transmit data across the at least one data channel and transmit a clock signal across the clock channel; and
a receiver configured to receive the transmitted data and clock signal and delay the received data according to a delay time to synchronize the received data with the clock signal,
wherein the transmitter is configured to sequentially transmit test data and a first code during a first mode, and
wherein the receiver is configured to compare the test data against a predetermined data pattern in response to receipt of the first code to determine the delay.

14. The high-speed data interface of claim 13 ,
wherein the transmitter is configured to sequentially transmit normal data and a second other code during a second mode, and
wherein the receiver is configured to delay the normal data using the determined delay in response to receipt of the second code.

15. The high-speed data interface of claim 13 , wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit data in a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) standard, and the receiver is configured to receive data in the MIPI standard.

16. The high-speed data interface of claim 13 , wherein the first mode occurs during a power-up of the data interface.

17. The high-speed data interface of claim 13 , wherein the data is image data comprising a plurality of frames, a vertical blanking period is present between each of the frames, and the first mode occurs during at least one of the vertical blanking periods.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Han Soo
• Kim Sung Jun
• Kim Chae Ryung
• Park Dong Uk
• Chung Youn Woong
• Choi Jung Myung
• Lim Han Kyul
• Cha Gyeong Han

Classifications

• H03K2005/00058

  controlled by a digital setting · CPC title

• H03K5/131

  Digitally controlled · CPC title

• H04L7/0016 Primary

  correction of synchronization errors · CPC title

• G01R31/31725

  Timing aspects, e.g. clock distribution, skew, propagation delay (for tester hardware G01R31/31937) · CPC title

• H04L7/0041 Primary

  Delay of data signal · CPC title