Member Achievements, Contributions Recognized at Ninth Annual MIPI Alliance Awards Ceremony

Membership awards presented for exceptional work advancing MIPI specifications for mobile, IoT, automotive and other applications

PISCATAWAY, N.J., and MUNICH, June 15, 2022 - The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, today announced the recipients of the 2021 MIPI Alliance Membership Awards. Continuing a tradition begun in 2013, members were honored for their outstanding contributions and leadership at MIPI’s ninth annual awards ceremony, held in conjunction with its 60th member meeting in Munich.

"The strength of MIPI Alliance lies in the dedication of its members, and we are proud to acknowledge the individuals and companies whose work has contributed significantly to the development of MIPI specifications that advance hardware and software integration in mobile, IoT, automotive and other areas," said Sanjiv Desai, chair of MIPI Alliance. "Through their technical skills, hard work and commitment to collaboration, these recipients have gone above and beyond to further MIPI’s mission and meet the needs of the industries we serve."

MIPI members have the opportunity to nominate individuals and companies for outstanding contributions and achievements. An awards and recognition committee reviews these nominations and recommends recipients to the MIPI Board of Directors, which approves the final honorees. This year’s program honored nine award recipients in five categories.

The Corporate Award was presented to Google LLC for exemplary leadership within the MIPI Audio Working Group and significant contributions to MIPI Camera Serial Interface 2 (MIPI CSI-2) and MIPI Display Serial Interface 2 (MIPI DSI-2) development efforts within the MIPI Camera Working Group and MIPI Display Working Group.

Three members received the 2021 Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes individuals impacting the MIPI specification development process or those contributing by serving on the board of directors, a working group or helping in the areas of marketing and testing:

• Wonseok Lee of Samsung Electronics received the award for his innovative contribution of Multi-Pixel Compression (MPC) to the MIPI CSI-2 v4.0 specification. Lee was recognized for his technical expertise and substantial efforts to accelerate adoption of the MPC feature, which provides for more efficient transmission of data by multi-pixel image sensors.
• Eyran Lida of Valens Semiconductor was selected to receive this honor for his contributions to MIPI A-PHY development and MIPI's automotive initiatives. Lida’s dedication to A-PHY development and support of the specification through serving as a MIPI speaker and technical author have been crucial to the introduction of A-PHY to the automotive industry.
• Takashi Miyamoto of Sony Group Corporation was recognized for his contributions to the MIPI Security Working Group, specifically his extensive work to identify and clarify requirements, and provide technical inputs to the MIPI Security Specification v1.0, currently under active development.

The Working Group Leadership Award is presented to leaders within MIPI working groups in recognition of noteworthy contributions to the groups’ activities or specification development. Three individuals were recognized for their efforts:

• Edo Cohen of Valens Semiconductor, co-chair of the MIPI A-PHY Working Group, was recognized for his leadership role in the development, writing and editing of the A-PHY specification. His long-standing engagement, technical knowledge and contributions as a MIPI educator and author have been instrumental in advancing this key specification and furthering MIPI’s mission.
• Kirill Dimitrov of Western Digital Technologies Inc., chair of the MIPI M-PHY Working Group, was honored for his ongoing work to drive development of the M-PHY specification, including industry liaison collaboration to support adoption of M-PHY within JEDEC Solid State Technology Association's Universal Flash Storage (UFS) standard. Under his leadership, the working group has steadily released new versions of M-PHY to address the needs of the storage ecosystem.
• Ramesh Hanchinal of Synopsys Inc., chair of the MIPI UniPro Working Group, received the 2021 award for his leadership and technical contributions in developing the UniPro specification, which also has been adopted into the JEDEC UFS standard. Hanchinal is credited for his work to address industry requirements and complete supporting resources to further adoption, as well as encouraging active participation from member companies and building greater industry awareness of UniPro and M-PHY.

The Special Achievement Award is presented to individuals for achievements and projects that may fall outside the criteria for other award categories. The 2021 award was presented to the MIPI Automotive Marketing Subgroup (AMSG) for its role in developing information and education activities to support the introduction of MIPI A-PHY and the MIPI Automotive SerDes Solutions (MASS) connectivity framework. MIPI leaders and support team members recognized for the effort included Kevin Yee of Samsung Electronics, AMSG chair; Dana Zelitzki of Valens Semiconductor; Rick Wietfeldt of Qualcomm Incorporated; Tim Dry, also of Samsung; Tom Wong of Cadence Design Systems, and Christina Slape, Ian Smith, Sharmion Kerley and Becky Obbema (Interprose) on the MIPI team.

The Legacy Award is a posthumous award honoring individuals for notable participation in MIPI Alliance. Dr. Earl McCune was recognized as a true leader in his field and within MIPI, authoring numerous specification sections and supporting documents, and serving as chair of multiple MIPI subgroups for more than 10 years. As an expert in EMI analysis, and a leader in the definition of link and communication quality, he contributed extensively to the first versions of the MIPI RFFE specification, which is now considered the de facto standard interface for control of radio frequency (RF) front-end (FE) subsystems. His legacy, both as a technical expert and a respected colleague, friend and mentor, will be remembered by all who knew him.

Photos and information about past recipients may be found at https://www.mipi.org/membership/annual-awards.

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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. Founded in 2003, the organization has over 350 member companies worldwide and more than 15 active working groups delivering specifications within the 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^®, CSI-2^®, M-PHY^® and UniPro^® are registered trademarks owned by MIPI Alliance. A-PHY^SM and RFFE^SM are service marks of MIPI Alliance.

Press Contact:

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