11th Annual MIPI Alliance Awards Ceremony Honors Members for Outstanding Leadership and Contributions

Seven recipients recognized for their dedication to advancing MIPI specifications for mobile, IoT, automotive, camera and other application areas

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., June 19, 2024 - The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, today announced the recipients of its 2023 MIPI Alliance Membership Awards. Extending its tradition of honoring members for their significant contributions, MIPI held its 11th annual awards ceremony in San Diego earlier this month in conjunction with MIPI Member Meeting #66.

"The annual membership awards program highlights our greatest strengths as an alliance—our members' technical leadership and dedication to creating innovative, unparalleled interface solutions for the industries we serve," said Sanjiv Desai, MIPI Alliance chair. "The 2023 honorees' exceptional contributions, in areas ranging from the development of new specification features to furthering adoption through education and outreach, affirm our members' strong commitment to the future success of MIPI specifications in mobile phones and personal computers, automotive, IoT and the many other application areas we support."

MIPI members nominate individuals and companies for the awards. The Awards Recognition Committee (ARComm), appointed by the MIPI Board of Directors, reviews and recommends nominees, and the board approves the final honorees. Seven award recipients in five categories were recognized during the ceremony.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals who have at least seven years of service to MIPI Alliance and who have provided noteworthy contributions or leadership to a working group, the board of directors or another MIPI area. George Wiley of Qualcomm Incorporated was recognized for his dedication as chair of the MIPI C-PHY Working Group and vice chair of the PHY Steering Group, along with his technical expertise and participation in numerous educational activities. Wiley is known for collaborating successfully with other MIPI working groups to bring needed cohesiveness among specifications, contributing articles to the MIPI blog and industry publications, and presenting at MIPI events.

The Corporate Award is presented to a member company for outstanding corporate leadership and contribution to the MIPI Alliance. Valens Semiconductor joined MIPI in 2017 and was recognized for its efforts to advance MIPI automotive initiatives and the adoption of MIPI A-PHY. The company has taken a leadership role in the A-PHY Working Group and Technical Steering Group, and is an active contributor not only to the development of the A-PHY specification, but also to the many A-PHY Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) specifications that support A-PHY connectivity. Valens has also been instrumental in providing automotive-related education and promotion at MIPI and industry events, and is a key contributor to the development of the A-PHY Compliance Program.

The Working Group Leadership Award is presented to leaders within MIPI working groups in recognition of their noteworthy contributions to the groups’ activities or specification development. A longtime MIPI member, Tom Kopet of onsemi, was recognized for his steady leadership as chair of the MIPI Camera Working Group. Kopet has successfully coordinated and contributed to the activities of the Camera Working Group and multiple subgroups to advance camera initiatives, particularly those related to security, the exploration of next-generation CSI-2 features, and work with key industry liaisons.

Three members received the Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes distinguished service based on momentous contributions to the MIPI specification development process or to the MIPI Board of Directors, Marketing Steering Group or Test Working Group:

• Yasuhiro Kitamura of Sony Group Corporation was recognized for his work in the development and refinement of the upcoming MIPI C-PHY v3.0, most notably his contributions to the system verification of key components such as jitter-reduced coding, threshold calibration, eye diagram measurement, electrical specifications and common mode noise measurement. Also, Kitamura presented detailed study results to the MIPI C-PHY Working Group and continues to provide valuable insights that have contributed to driving consensus on critical issues.
• Frank Seto of Samsung Electronics, Co. was recognized for his noteworthy achievements within the MIPI D-PHY Working Group. Seto served as author of MIPI D-PHY v3.5, capturing discussions within the working group in updates to the specification and proving instrumental in its timely release. Significant contributions to D-PHY v3.5 from Samsung included clock data recovery, embedded clock mode concepts and more.
• Marcin Kowalewski of Synopsys Inc. was also selected for his multifaceted contributions to the MIPI D-PHY Working Group. He was noted for his role in significantly reducing specification ambiguities, actively facilitating various specification assessment activities, and untangling complex interactions between the specification and test domains. In addition, Kowalewski has offered valuable insights into practical analog mixed-signal implementations.

The Special Achievement Award is presented to individuals who have taken a lead role in the MIPI Alliance and who have actively and consistently performed and contributed toward MIPI objectives. Aradhana Kumari of STMicroelectronics was recognized for her notable leadership in MIPI I3C outreach and education. Her presentations at MIPI events and industry conferences, and participation at test events have helped proliferate I3C among technical audiences around the globe. Furthermore, Kumari’s achievements include the development of an FPGA-based real-time validation platform for the I3C target, and a low-cost prototype framework for I3C controller validation, which demonstrates how to reduce time to market for devices using the specification.

For photos and information about the MIPI Alliance Membership Awards, visit https://www.mipi.org/membership/annual-awards.

To keep up with MIPI Alliance, subscribe to the MIPI blog and stay connected by following MIPI on LinkedIn, X and YouTube.

About MIPI Alliance

MIPI Alliance (MIPI) develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries. There is at least one MIPI specification in every smartphone manufactured today. The organization has over 375 member companies worldwide and more than 15 active working groups delivering specifications within the extended mobile ecosystem. Members of the organization include handset manufacturers, device OEMs, software providers, semiconductor companies, application processor developers, IP tool providers, automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, and test and test equipment companies, as well as camera, tablet and laptop manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.mipi.org.

MIPI®, A-PHY®, CSI-2® and I3C® are registered trademarks owned by MIPI Alliance. C-PHY℠, D-PHY℠ and PAL℠ are service marks of MIPI Alliance.

Press Contact:

Becky Obbema
Interprose for MIPI Alliance
+1 408.569.3546
becky.obbema@interprosepr.com