Mechanism for mipi communication using optical interface

An apparatus comprising:

• a laser emitter configured to transmit laser energy across an air gap to a separate device;
• a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI);
• driver circuitry electrically coupled to the laser emitter, wherein the driver circuitry is configured to receive an electrical signal according to an MIPI protocol and drive the laser emitter according to the electrical signal;
• a tone circuit configured to generate a tone signal of a specified tone frequency;
• and
• an MIPI mode detection circuit electrically coupled to the driver circuitry and the MIPI, wherein the MIPI mode detection circuit is configured to detect a change between a MIPI low power (LP) mode and a MIPI high speed (HS) mode at the MIPI interface, and add the tone signal to an electrical signal provided to the driver circuitry from the MIPI according to the detected change.

An apparatus comprising:

• a photodiode configured to receive laser energy across an air gap from a separate device;
• receiver circuitry electrically coupled to the photodiode and configured to convert the received laser energy to a received electrical signal;
• a tone detector circuit configured to detect a tone signal in the received electrical signal;
• and
• logic circuitry electrically coupled to the receiver circuitry and the tone detector circuit, wherein the logic circuitry is configured to send the received electrical signal as an electrical signal compatible with a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) low power (LP) mode or a MIPI high speed (HS) mode according to the detected tone signal.

An apparatus comprising an optical interface, the optical interface including:

• an optical interface host side including:
• a host-side laser emitter;
• host-side driver circuitry, wherein the host-side driver circuitry is electrically coupled to a host-side mobile industry processor interface (MIPI);
• a host-side tone circuit configured to generate a tone signal of a specified tone frequency;
• and
• an MIPI mode detection circuit electrically coupled to the driver circuitry and the host-side MIPI, wherein the MIN mode detection circuit is configured to detect a change between a low power (LP) mode and a MIPI high speed (HS) mode at the host-side MIPI, and add the tone signal according to the detected change to an electrical signal to be transmit as a laser signal;
• and
• an optical interface peripheral side separated from the optical interface host side by an air space, the optical interface peripheral side including:
• a peripheral-side photodiode;
• peripheral-side receiver circuitry;
• wherein the peripheral-side receiver circuitry is configured to convert the received laser energy to a received electrical signal;
• a peripheral-side tone detector circuit configured to detect a tone signal in the received electrical signal;
• and
• peripheral-side logic circuitry electrically coupled to the receiver circuitry and a peripheral-side MIPI, wherein the logic circuitry is configured to provide the received electrical signal to the peripheral-side MIPI as an electrical signal compatible with the MIPI HS mode or the MIPI LP mode according to the detected tone signal.

A method of operating an optical interface, the method comprising:

• receiving an electrical signal at the optical interface according to a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) protocol;
• selectively adding a tone signal having a tone signal frequency to the received electrical signal;
• transmitting the electrical signal as laser energy across an air gap to a photodiode;
• and
• converting transmitted laser energy back to an electrical signal and providing the converted electrical signal to an electrical interface according to an MIPI low power (LP) mode or a MIPI high speed (HS) mode according to the tone signal.