Teardown: Inside Apple's iphone 5

Transcription

1 Teardown: Inside Apple's iphone 5 Allan Yogasingam 9/21/2012 3:23 PM EDT Pictures show that Apple mostly stuck with incumbent suppliers. Analysis by UBM TechInsights finds Apple largely stuck with incumbent suppliers. Apple is considered the leader in the smartphone market. In five years, the company has generated more than $150 billion in revenue from the iphone family of handsets and accessories, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. More than 100 million iphones have been sold. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company clearly doesn't plan to relinquish its standing any time soon. The iphone 5 is touted by many as the most innovative iphone since the original, offering the first re-design of the product since the "squaring" of the iphone 4. The iphone 5 marks Apple's first time moving beyond their 3.5-inch touchscreen comfort zone, with the introduction of a lengthened 4-inch screen. An estimated 2 million units have already been sold via Apple's online pre-order system. The member of the iphone family to divert from ithe 3.5-inch screen, the iphone 5 boasts a 4-inch Retina display with a resolution of 1136 x 640 and 326 pixels per square inch. The iphone 5 also re-introduces the front-to-back manufacturing model that was last seen with the iphone 3GS. (One wonders if Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer of choice for Apple, had any influence in the change, as front-to-back manufacturing makes for easier assembly). Since the introduction of the iphone by Apple in January of 2007, the handset has been the very definition of "iterative improvement." The first iphone, with its multi-touch screen and application-based environment, was considered revolutionary to the smartphone segment. Since that time, there has been five generations of iphone models, each one improving on the model preceding it. The iphone 5 is marketed as the most dramatic improvement of any new model, but does it really differ that much from its predecessors? Let's take a look inside to understand what changes at the component level the iphone 5 reveals. The front of the iphone 5 communications board (click on image to enlarge and expand). Incumbents rule There are different flavors of the iphone 5. The model torn down by UBM TechInsights Friday (Sept. 21) was the A1428 model, optimized for the AT&T and Canada's LTE networks. One of Apple's keys to success is their component selection. Under the direction of Tim Cook--then vice president of supply chain, now CEO--Apple developed supplier relationships from the very first iphone that have only strengthened with every iteration of the handset. From a supply chain point-of-view, what this tells us is that Apple is relatively set in its partnerships with semiconductor manufacturers making opportunities for those manufacturers not currently entrenched with Apple nearly non-existent. [Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.] For example, 10 manufacturers that had design wins in the original iphone hold the same socket in the iphone 5. Larger semiconductor companies like Samsung Electronics, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics supply a large portion of the iphone 5's chips. Smaller companies like Dialog Semiconductor (provider of the main power management IC), Skyworks Solution (provider of the baseband power amplifier modules) and TriQuint Semiconductor (provider of the power amplifier modules) continue to gain massively with their socket wins inside the iphone 5.

2 In fact, it is often major news when Apple does decide to replace a manufacturer on a key component selected for the iphone. For example, it was newsworthy when Apple made the switch from utilizing Infineon-manufactured baseband processors to those from Qualcomm. That transition was made rather slowly, though, as Apple created a GSM version of the iphone 4 using an Infineon baseband processor and a CDMA version of the same handset using Qualcomm's baseband chip. The switch to Qualcomm seemed imminent, as the IC selected for the CDMA version had GSM capability. To the surprise of few, the iphone 5 continues to use Qualcomm baseband circuitry. The iphone 5 also heralds Apple's move into the 4G wireless landscape. Apple's latest handset is the first to incorporate LTE, matching the baseband capability of the third-generation ipad. Qualcomm has three design wins in the iphone 5, all of them related to the company's LTE technology. The "crown jewel" of these ICs is the MDM9615. This device, manufactured at the 28-nm process node, is a mobile data modem that supports LTE (FDD and TDD), DC-HSPA+, EV-DO Rev-B and TD-SCDMA, making it a truly global baseband IC--capable of functioning on any carrier. With the MDM9615 are the natural pairs of the PM8018 power management IC and the RTR8600 quad-band transceiver with GPS. All three are part of Qualcomm's LTE ecosystem and were selected because of their interoperability. Qualcomm MDM9615 die marking (click on image to enlarge). ST, Dialog Semi, SanDisk, Elpida, Broadcom Returning for what is now a sixth appearance in an iphone are STMicroelectronics paired accelerometers the L3G4200DH 3-axis digital MEMS gyroscope and the LIS331DLH 3-Axis MEMS accelerometer. Apple feels very comfortable with both of these devices, and one wonders if Nintendo will continue to use these same ICs as well in its next console, the Wii U. Speaking of familiar manufacturers, Dialog retains its power management IC socket with a new device, the Agatha II, or the D2013. Cirrus Logic also retains its audio codec in the iphone 5. [Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.] For memory, the 32-GB of NAND flash found in the iphone 5 torn down by UBM TechInsights was provided by SanDisk. The processor memory is found on a package-on-package (PoP) with the A6 applications processor. The PoP we found in our handset utilized Elpida's B8164B3PM 1-GB pow-power DDR2 (LPDDR2) SDRAM. Lastly, Broadcom maintains its key design wins in the iphone 5, with the major win being Broadcom's BCM4334 single-chip dual-band n, Bluetooth 4.0+HS & FM receiver combo chip providing the wireless connectivity to the handset. This same die was found within the Samsung Galaxy S3, suggesting that this combo chip is the current king of Wi-Fi.

3 Inside the Murata module containing the Broadcom BCM4334. Dissecting the A6 processor Apple has also used this iteration of the iphone to introduce its latest processor, the much anticipated multi-core CPU and quad-core GPU A6 processor. There were many questions about this Apple custom-designed processor the most intriguing of which was the mystery behind the number and type of cores. Would we be looking at a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 implementation of the A6, or a dual-core processor powered by ARM's latest cores, the Cortex-A15? Apple has promised twice the performance of the A5 and twice the graphics capability. Apple A6 die marking (source: UBM TechInsights). Where the A6 is being fabricated was also a mystery. Apple has partnered with Samsung for every generation of the family of processors, but recent courtroom battles over patents and rumors of an Apple partnership with TSMC have led to rumors of a new foundry supplier for the A6. But our early analysis of the A6 revealed die markings that are similar to the Samsung markings found on the A4 and A5 processors. Also of interest is which ARM core is behind the CPU and if the promises of low power consumption are a tell that Apple has made the move to the 28-nm process node. Apple introduced processors manufactured on Samsung's 32-nm process node with the A5 found in the second-generation Apple TV. But TSMC has been in mass production on 28-nm for quite some time now. We're doing a cross-section to verify the process, but the die shrink of mm 2 is much smaller than the mm 2 of the Apple A5X processor and the 45-nm version of the A5 processor, which was also a large mm 2. So there is it, the heart of the Apple's product family, cut wide open for all the world to see. Based on early sales figures, this latest version of the iphone has struck a chord with consumers. The world's love affair with the sleekly designed handset appears likely to continue. Scroll through the following pages for more photos from the teardown.

4 Apple A6 die photo (click on image to enlarge). Allan Yogasingam is a technical research manager at UBM TechInsights, owned by the same company that publishes EE Times, UBM plc. Back of the comms board In the box The back of the iphone 5 comms board (click on image to enlarge and expand).

5 A look at the (slightly dented) packaging of the iphone 5. Note the sleek black box is a departure from the traditional white packaging of Apple products (click on image to enlarge). Out of the box A look at what s inside the black box including the new and improved headphones and Lightning charger (click on image to enlarge). Removing the display Title-8 Removing the 4.0-inch Retina display. Note the front-to-back build (click on image to enlarge).

6 Peering inside the iphone 5 shows a compact design with the battery very close to the main board (click on image to enlarge). Picking away at the flex connectors Split in two Picking away at the flex connectors (click on image to enlarge). Removing the main board The iphone 5 split into two (click on image to enlarge).

7 Removing the back image sensor Removing the main board one screw at a time (click on image to enlarge). A peek at the speakers Removing the back image sensor of the iphone 5 (click on image to enlarge). Removal of the main board gives access to one of the iphone 5 s speakers (click on image to enlarge).

8 The board outside Peeling away the shielding The board outside its former home (click on image to enlarge). Peeling away the protective shielding of the main board to reveal the components (click on image to enlarge). Separating the display from the touchscreen Layers of the main display Separating the display from the touchscreen (click on image to enlarge).

9 Getting to the layers of the main display (click on image to enlarge). Just like a banana Peeling it like a banana (click on image to enlarge). The iphone 5 dissected The iphone 5 dissected--the A6 is the engineering gem to us, so it sits on top of the pilee (click on image to enlarge). Component listing A listing of the major components of iphone 5 as uncovered during the UBM TechInsights teardown of iphone 5: Apple A6--applications processor

10 Elpida B8164B3PM--low power DDR2 SDRAM Murata SWUA antenna switch Triquint TQM power amplifier module Avago AFEM G/4G family LTE/UMTS/CDMA dual-band PAD (PA + duplexer module)-- band 1 and band 4 Skyworks SKY power amplifier control--lte band 17 Skyworks SKY power amplifier control--lte band 1 Skyworks SKY power amplifier duplexer module Skyworks SKY power amplifier control--quad-band,gsm/gprs Dialog Semiconductor D2013 (338S1131)--power management IC Cirrus Logic CLIIS8881 (338S1117)--audio codec STMicroelectronics L3G4200DH--3-axis digital MEMS gyroscope module STMicroelectronics LIS331DLH--3-axis MEMS accelerometer Broadcom BCM4334 (Murata 339S0171)--single-chip dual-band combo device supporting n, Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM receiver Broadcom BCM5976--touchpad controller Qualcomm MDM9615--mobile data modem supporting LTE (FDD and TDD), DC-HSPA+, EV-DO Rev-B and TD-SCDMA Qualcomm RTR8600--GSM / CDMA / W-CDMA / LTE RxD transceiver + GPS Qualcomm PM8018--power management IC Texas Instruments 27A333DI touchscreen controller SanDisk SDMALBB4--32-GB multi-chip memory package w/controller RF Micro Devices RF1102--SP9T antenna switch