ON Semiconductor has announced the release of the Modular Automotive Reference System (MARS), which is a platform that is designed to be mounted to vehicles, with the ability to mix and match image sensors, lenses, image signal processors (ISP), and protocols to fit customer needs in automotive camera applications.
MARS is not a camera with housing for production, but rather a modular approach to make a reference camera. The reference system, according to ON Semiconductor, provides system and software developers a ready-to-use prototype system for research and development. With the MARS platform, users can reconfigure cameras with different components, providing flexibility that enables it to be deployed into applications including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), surround and rear viewing systems, in-cabin cameras (for gesture recognition, driver eye monitoring, or light level inspection purposes), and autonomous driving.
MARS consists of a set of miniature 25mm2 boards, with each board containing one of more of the major imaging components in the system. This includes sensor boards, image co-processors, deserializer boards, and serializer boards. ON Semiconductor is currently offering sensor boards that are available with the following CMOS image sensors: AR0230AT (2.1 MPixel), AR0231AT (2.3 MPixel), AR0132AT (1.2 MPixel), AR0136AT (1.2 MPixel), AR0140AT (1 MPixel), and AR0135AT (1.2 MPixel.)
A product recommendation tool provides a step-by-step process to select the correct board(s) for your design. By utilizing the MARS platform, users will have access to ON Semiconductor’s broad portfolio of image sensors and co-processors, plus various automotive communications protocols from a select group of third party supply partners.
"As image sensing proliferates in automotive applications, MARS will provide system and software developers tasked with turning concepts into reliable working applications with a valuable platform to simplify and speed proof of concept and development, and offer the scalability to get ideas from the lab to on-vehicle testing in real-world conditions," said Ross Jatou, General Manager and Vice President of Automotive Solutions Division of Image Sensor Group at ON Semiconductor. "The flexibility of MARS accelerates the component selection process by making the constituent sensors and co-processors totally interchangeable. The platform avoids the need to construct a multitude of custom boards to house different sensors for evaluation reducing engineering effort and shortening project times."
MARS supports commonly-used communication standards, such as GMSL, FPD-Link, LVDS, MIPI, and Ethernet, which enables direct interfacing with existing vehicle electronic control units. ON Semiconductor it working with a number of partners, including lens developers, third party ISP vendors, communications IC vendors, software developers and SoC vendors. MARS modules are already prequalified with a range of these third-party products, and the company will expand these offerings going forward.
View more information on MARS.
View a blog post on MARS.
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