Israeli chip manufacturer Valens helped develop automotive industry standards that will be used to provide high-speed connectivity for in-vehicle applications that require large amounts of data. To learn more, we talked with Gideon Kedem, head of Valens' automotive business and senior vice president.

Can you tell us something about Valens Semiconductor when it entered the automotive industry, what the company looks like today, your customers, and your goals for the next 12 months? 

Founded in 2006, Valens is a leading supplier of semiconductor products for the evolving automotive and audio and video markets. Our standard-setting technology has been deployed by leading companies in applications where performance and cost are critical. Earlier this year, in September 2021, Valens was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, marking an important milestone in our corporate development process and providing us with the market recognition needed to accelerate growth.

We push the boundaries of connection by realizing long-distance, high-speed video and data transmission. Our chipsets transmit video and data with industry-leading multi-gigabit bandwidth through long-distance, space-saving cabling infrastructure, ensuring zero-latency, error-free links-all at the lowest total system cost.

Our products are already on the road in vehicles all over the world, powering the most advanced MBUX infotainment system of Mercedes-Benz models. Our technology was selected as the benchmark of the MIPI A-PHY standard for high-speed, long-distance sensor connection in vehicles. The A-PHY ecosystem is developing rapidly. Companies such as Mobileye, Sony, Sunny Optical, and LG Innotek have publicly announced support for A-PHY, and more companies will integrate it into their product roadmaps.

As a market leader, Valens is the first company to launch a MIPI A-PHY compliant chipset, and we believe this will mark an important milestone in the transformation of global automotive connectivity.

Why choose PTK and what opportunities does the merger of SPAC create?

PTK Acquisition Corp is one of many SPAC companies with the goal of stable business, innovative technology and fascinating and successful growth stories. PTK has extensive operating and investment experience in the hardware and semiconductor industries, and the management team has a good track record in using global market relationships to tap the synergy effects of the entire electronics and automotive value chain. So for us, this is a match made in heaven.

We know that Valens predicts strong revenue growth from now to 2026. What is the reason behind this?

Valens operates in a fast-growing market, and the addressable market we operate is expected to reach US$9 billion by 2026.

We pay close attention to MIPI A-PHY extensively. The first batch of engineering samples of A-PHY-compliant chipsets (VA70XX series) are expected to be released soon to select potential customers and partners. We believe they will cause a sensation in the industry. Many companies have expressed interest in A-PHY, especially in our chips. We believe that they will win more customers. We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable goals, and I believe we are capable of achieving them. 

ADAS is a rapidly developing field. Although we have seen the accelerated development of level 1 and level 2 driving automation, there is a delay in higher levels of driving automation due to the lack of an established regulatory framework and the technical challenges of providing safety in all driving situations. What do you think of the market development in terms of the 2+ level of cars in the near future? 

Without touching on regulatory issues that are really important but beyond our jurisdiction, if the automotive industry wants to "upgrade" the quality and quantity of sensors to improve passenger safety, real technological improvements are needed. These are some of the key obstacles that the industry must clear for level 2 and level 3 cars. They are definitely the full deployment of self-driving cars and future software-defined cars: Zero latency-automation requires perfect communication between different systems in the vehicle, including sensors to ECU and ECU to ECU. As more functions and applications are added, the car must calculate and transmit more data, which can cause significant delays. In situations where safety-critical decisions need to be made within a fraction of a second, this can lead to serious or even fatal consequences. High-bandwidth connections—Connected cars must continuously communicate in real time, continuously process and stream data from the vehicle environment and its internal systems. It is only a matter of time before the car generates and consumes several terabytes of data every day-this amount of data undoubtedly needs high bandwidth to support. The huge computing platform and the range of data to be processed make it difficult to integrate an autonomous driving system that can communicate effectively in the car, which is why high-bandwidth transmission will become an indispensable part of autonomous vehicles. Error-free transmission-In order to enter a higher level of autonomous driving, cars must be able to transmit data from higher-resolution cameras, next-generation radars, etc. This requires higher bandwidth-8-16Gbps and above-which can also lead to errors in the cabling infrastructure. Therefore, ensuring that the car wiring infrastructure can transmit high bandwidth with zero errors is an important step to achieve the next level of autonomous driving.

Upgrading the in-vehicle connectivity infrastructure will pave the way for the next phase of development of autonomous driving and software-defined vehicles.

The connection standard that gained industry momentum is A-PHY. Why is A-PHY the gold standard for in-vehicle connectivity?

The automotive industry needs a standardized solution to ensure zero delay, error-free, and high-speed communication in the vehicle. Although there has always been competition in the implementation of standard automotive connectivity solutions, A-PHY is in a leading position in terms of maturity, market ecosystem, and technological advantages.

A-PHY-compliant chipsets can support 2-16 Gbps over a 10-15 meter cable, and the roadmap reaches 24-48+ Gbps—enough to meet the challenging bandwidth requirements of current and future sensor technologies. These high-speed links are virtually immune to electromagnetic noise, ensuring that the links between components are correct.

In addition, many OEM manufacturers are evaluating A-PHY, Sony and other sensor companies have promised to integrate A-PHY into their product lines, and vendors such as Mobileye have also publicly stated that they will support A-PHY in the next phase. -A generation of products.

Valens' technology was selected as the benchmark for MIPI A-PHY, which is a new global automotive video connection standard released in 2020. Earlier this year, the well-known IEEE standardization organization finally adopted A-PHY as one of its standards. The choice of Valens technology allows us to provide the first MIPI A-PHY compliant chipsets on the market, which puts us far ahead. As I mentioned, by the end of 2021, we will provide customers with engineering samples, so the standard is smoothly becoming an industry reality. In just a few years, I believe you will see this technology in almost every car that leaves the assembly line.

To what extent does A-PHY technology reduce wiring complexity, vehicle weight, and total system cost?

A-PHY is not only superior to any connection technology used in today's cars, but it also reduces the total system cost. Recently, a report released by the independent benchmarking company A2MAC1 showed that the use of MIPI A-PHY-based chipsets for higher-resolution camera sensors and SerDes solutions will make the system overall The cost is reduced by up to 15%. This includes a 63% reduction in wiring harness and connector costs, which together constitute a large part of the total system cost. The report pointed out that the native integration of A-PHY into the image sensor can bring further cost reduction opportunities for OEMs. 

What did you learn during the pandemic that you did not expect to learn? Does it open up unexpected opportunities for Valence?

Most of my answers are focused on the automotive market, but I must say that we also have a very successful business unit-audio-video. We have created the HDBaseT industry standard for long-distance connections, and our chipsets have been embedded in all major audio-video player products.

Of course, due to COVID-19, the industry has undergone a large-scale and accelerated transformation, and everything is happening online. Video conferencing is all the rage and has become the preferred communication method for schools and offices around the world.

We are pleased to note that our video conferencing solutions have become the main focus of our audio and video business. We believe that mixed education and mixed workplaces will continue to exist. We are also seeing an increase in business opportunities in other verticals such as industry, medical imaging, and transportation. Therefore, we are optimistic about our two business sectors-automotive and audio and video. Related companies GlobalData GlobalData can provide actionable insights to drive your company forward August 28, 2020 Access to the data

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