Valens Semiconductor

Last updated
Valens Semiconductor Ltd
Company type Public company
NYSE:  VLN
Industry Semiconductors
Founded2006;18 years ago (2006)
Headquarters
Hod HaSharon
,
Israel
Key people
Gideon Ben-Zvi, CEO
Products HDBaseT microchips and chipsets; VA7000 and VA6000 chipsets for automotive
Website www.valens.com

Valens Semiconductor (Valens) is an Israeli fabless manufacturing company providing semiconductors for the automotive and audio-video industries. Valens provides semiconductor products for the distribution of uncompressed ultra-high-definition (UHD) multimedia content and in-vehicle connectivity applications. The company is a member of the MIPI Alliance and developed the first-to-market chipset that is compliant with the MIPI A-PHY standard. [1] Valens invented the technology behind the HDBaseT standard and is a co-founder of the HDBaseT Alliance.

Contents

History

In January 2009, HDBaseT products were first demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. [2]

In September 2015, Valens won the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award, given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for outstanding achievement in the development and Standardization of HDBaseT Connectivity Technology for Commercial and Residential HDMI/DVI Installations. [3]

In January 2016, Valens announced its intention to branch out and offer its chipsets to the automotive market, partnering with General Motors, Delphi Automotive, and Daimler AG. [4]

In June 2017, Valens introduced the VA6000 chipset family for automotive applications. [5] The VA6000 uses the principle of multi-format aggregation over a single unshielded twisted pair cable with a length of up to 15 meters. [6] The chipsets are integrated in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which was launched in September 2020. [7]

In June 2019, the HDBaseT Alliance announced Spec 3.0, which maintained all the features of Spec 2.0 and increased bandwidth over the HDBaseT link to support uncompressed HDMI 2.0 (4K@60 4:4:4), 1Gbps Ethernet, and enhanced USB performance. [8] Valens introduced the VS3000 Stello in June 2019 as well – a chipset family compliant with the HDBaseT Spec 3.0. [9]

In June 2019, the MIPI Alliance announced that Valens’ technology was selected as the foundation for its Automotive Physical Layer standard (A-PHY). [10] The standard will be used by the automotive industry to provide high-speed links for cameras, radars, LiDARs and displays for advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving systems. [11] A-PHY was adopted by the IEEE in July 2021. [12]

Funding

In May 2021, Valens announced plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a business combination with PTK Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. [13] The company began publicly trading on the NYSE under the ticker name VLN in September 2021. [14]

Technology

Valens' HDBaseT technology is used for transmitting uncompressed high quality images and audio from the base stations, potentially up to a distance of 100 meters (328 ft) through a single cable, to remote displays as a part of its 5PlayTM system. HDBaseT is transmitted over category 6a cables with 8P8C modular connectors of the type commonly used for Ethernet local area network connections. [15] [16] HDBaseT transmits uncompressed ultra-high-definition video (up to 4K), audio, power over HDBaseT (PoH - up to 100W), Ethernet, USB, and a series of controls such as RS and IR.

HDBaseT is complementary to standards such as HDMI, and it is an alternative to radio frequency, coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA. HDBaseT connects and networks CE devices such as set-top boxes except Cisco and Scientific Atlantic boxes, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles, switches, matrices, projectors, and AV receivers to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, and digital televisions. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

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BroadR-Reach technology is an Ethernet physical layer standard designed for automotive connectivity applications. BroadR-Reach allows multiple in-vehicle systems to simultaneously access information over unshielded single twisted pair cable. BroadR-Reach was invented and is promoted by Broadcom Corporation, now Broadcom Limited.

Aquantia Corporation was a manufacturer of high-speed transceivers. In 2004, Aquantia Corporation was founded and first made products for Data Center connectivity, and in 2013 announced the world's first integrated 10GBASE-T MAC/PHY for servers. In 2014, Aquantia founded the NBASE-T Alliance together with Cisco, Xilinx and Freescale. In the same year they introduced a technology that delivered a boost to Ethernet throughput and was aimed to help with an expected increase in mobile broadband traffic. The NBASE-T Alliance promoted the 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T standard, which was ratified as the 802.3bz standard by the IEEE in 2016. The standard enabled Cat5e cables to carry 2.5 Gb of data per second and Cat6 cables to carry 5 Gbps. In 2016, Aquantia announced a technology, that made it possible to achieve up to 100Gbps over a copper cable.

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References

  1. ↑ Valens Announces First MIPI A-PHY-Compliant Automotive Serializer, Deserializer Chipsets, Brandon Lewis, Embedded Computing Design, 6/8/2020
  2. ↑ Valens HDBaseT tech carries HD video, audio and internet over Ethernet, D. Murph, Engadget, 12/15/2008
  3. ↑ 67th Award Recipients, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 9/2/2015
  4. ↑ The HDBaseT Alliance Expands into the Automotive Sector, HDBaseT Alliance, 1/6/2016
  5. ↑ Linse Capital and Oppenheimer Invested $63M in Valens, TechTime, 11/6/2018
  6. ↑ Chipset tunnels multimedia content through UTP cable, Christoph Hammerschmidt, 11/2/2017
  7. ↑ Valens VA6000 chipsets in Mercedes S-Class, Just-Auto, 5/19/2021
  8. ↑ HDBaseT Spec 3.0: Advancing the ProAV Sector with Uncompressed 4K/60/4:4:4, HDBaseT Alliance, 6/11/2019
  9. ↑ A Major Breakthrough in 4K Distribution Technology, AVPro Edge, 6/25/2019
  10. ↑ MIPI’s High-Speed Auto Standard to be Based on Valens Tech, Murray Slovick, Innovation Destination, 6/11/2019
  11. ↑ IEEE adopts MIPI A-PHY, first industry-standard, long-reach data communications for automotive applications, Robotics & Automation News, David Edwards, Robotics & Automation News, 8/20/2021
  12. ↑ New IEEE Standard Takes Aim at Easing Long-Reach SerDes Automotive Design, Adrian Gibbons, All About Circuits, 7/15/2021
  13. ↑ Valens, Auto Connectivity Specialist, Lists on NYSE, Nitin Dahad, EE Times, 5/6/2021
  14. ↑ Automotive chipmaker Valens enters NYSE after completing $1.1 billion SPAC merger, CTech, 9/30/2021
  15. ↑ Samsung, LG, Sony and Valens form HDBaseT Alliance Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine . Audio Video Revolution, December 17, 2009
  16. ↑ 5Play Convergence and the Next HD Digital Connectivity Standard-White Paper Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine . Valens Semiconductor, accessed March 23, 2010
  17. ↑ Valens HDBaseT tech carries HD video, audio and internet over Ethernet Archived 2012-02-28 at the Wayback Machine . HD.Engadget.com, December 15, 2009
  18. ↑ Valens-HDBaseT up the ante on AV wiring Archived 2012-02-28 at the Wayback Machine . Entertainment Technology Center, January 8, 2010
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