Inova Semiconductors will be demonstrating its path towards software-defined lighting (SDL) and, in the next step, software-defined vehicles (SDV).
Inova’s chips have been making decisive contributions to digital displays and dynamically controllable LEDs for interior lighting for years. In this context, the company will present its latest digital ISELED LED technologies, the ILaS transceiver (ISELED Light and Sensor Network) for the interior lighting of complete vehicles and the Inova display Link technology based on APIX. Moreover, the SDV will take center stage in the automotive industry. Inova is a pioneer in this field and is demonstrating its contribution with the new APXpress product development for infotainment and sensor-based automated driving (ADAS). Both areas, modern infotainment and automated driving, trigger veritable avalanches of data in communication, which APXpress can handle with up to 32 Gbit/s and in several channels in parallel.
Inova designs the architecture of its chips in such a way that they require almost no software at all (OSI layers 1-3). Inova focuses on automotive, its products are characterised by minimum size and weight, minimal packaging, extremely low power consumption and maximum performance.
More about the three product families
The architecture for interior lighting called ISELED is the first product family with Smart LEDs. ‘Smart’ means that all LEDs are calibrated to the same color point and brightness by the LED manufacturer. The interaction of the LEDs is controlled by a microcontroller (µc) with minimal computing power, which can operate up to 4079 LEDs in a network.
The microcontroller can even be located outside the lighting network. This makes it possible to meet the toughest OEM requirements, such as the goal of reducing the number of microcontrollers per car to a maximum of 3. In this case, there are already ISELED Alliance solutions (see link below) from Analog Devices and Microchip to connect the Inova lighting network to an Ethernet communication backbone using 10BaseT1S technology. ILaS are the integrated light and sensor network components that can branch various LED-strips and small LED-lights throughout the vehicle.
All OPEN ISELED Alliance partner solutions are designed to be “plug & play” to allow a multivendor/multisource strategy for OEMs looking to utilise dynamic lighting scenarios in the future.
Display link technology as a second product area was established over ten years ago with customers such as Waymo, Honda, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Lamborghini, with the In Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems called APIX2 and APIX3 on all screens in the car.
Finally, the third area is APXpress with the aspects of infotainment and ADAS. APXpress Infotainment is the further enhancement of the display link for a communication bandwidth of up to 32 Gbit/s, allowing connectivity units, infotainment and rear-seat entertainment to migrate into one “zone” in the future. Inova is aiming for series production (SOP) by 2029. APXpress ADAS will revolutionise the connection of all types of sensor data streams to a high-performance computing unit.
