Camera interface method in mobile handset and its performance comparison

As 3G became the general tendency of mobile industry, new mobile handsets are challenged to show more and more functions. In order to process high- resolution images, the high-speed data transfer technology that was originally used in communication system or server system started to be adopted in mobile handsets. It is the purpose of this paper to describe and compare some technologies for high-speed data transfer between camera and ISP (image signal processor) focusing on specifications in the PHY layer, after going over the structural features of the mobile handsets. Most of these technologies are based on serial interface and they show excellence in terms of power, bandwidth and EMI in comparison to the conventional parallel interface based on the LVCMOS technology. In order to verify this fact, this paper presents a comparison of the SMIA interfaced camera module which represents the serial interface (as an example of the subLVDS technology) and the parallel interfaced camera module which represents the parallel interface (as an example of a general LVCMOS technology).