USB 3.0 machine vision camera hardware design and FPGA implementation

Machine vision camera is becoming more popular in the industry. USB 3.0 interface support 5Gbps transmission, and is a low-cost and fast way to transmit video signals from sensors to computers. However, most image sensors are incompatible with USB 3.0 protocol, and cannot directly connect to USB 3.0. In this report, we present the development of the hardware design of a USB 3.0 multi-purpose camera using the Cypress microprocessor. Our camera also has a FPGA module as an adaptive part to provide protocol translation, voltage level conversion, serial to parallel conversion, multi-channel data collection, and clock synthesis. We also discuss some important principles of system and schematic design, and emphasize a few critical PCB routing rules for assurance of PCB integrity. Some testing outcomes are provided to illustrate the hardware functionality and algorithm running results, which verify the success of the design and the performance of the camera.