Teardown: ADI provides force touch controller in iPhone

Business news | October 6, 2015

By eeNews Europe

Displays & Interfaces Analog Authentication & Encryption Materials & processes Memory & Data Storage Power Management Flexible Electronics Boards & Embedded Cards Electromechanical MPUs/MCUs Optoelectronics Digital Signal Processing

TechInsights did not reveal who is supplying the force touch technology but did show a picture of the assembly.

Force touch assembly from iPhone 6S. Source TechInsights.

Next: List of design winners

Techinsights’ list of design wins in iPhone 6S

Function	Manufacturer
Application Processor	Apple
Baseband Processor	Qualcomm
LPDDR SDRAM	Samsung
NAND – 16 GB/ 64 GB	Toshiba/SK Hynix
Power Management	Qualcomm
Power Management	Apple/Dialog Semi
Envelope Power Tracker	Qualcomm
RF Transceiver	Qualcomm
Accelerometer	Bosch
Gyroscope / Accelerometer	Invensense
Barometric Sensor	Bosch
Audio CODEC	Apple/Cirrus Logic
NFC Controller	NXP
Touchscreen Controller	Murata/Broadcom
Force Touch Controller	Analog Devices
WiFi / Bluetooth	Universal Scientific Industrial

Next: Estimated costs for iPhone 6S versus iPhone 6

The teardown also includes a Techinsights’ estimated cost of various functions within the Apple iPhone 6S and compares them with a similar estimate for the iPhone 6.

Cost of functions in iPhone 6S versus iPhone 6. Source: TechInsights. For larger version of figure click here.

This shows how the price paid for the sensor content has gone down from $8 in the previous iPhone to $5.50 in the iPhone 6S, according to TechInsights. The battery and radio cost have also been squeezed while Apple is paying more for the application processor, for the camera module and image sensor and for the display and touchscreen.

Next: The USS Enterprise

And TechInsights was able to uncover a bit of fun buried within the ambient light sensor from Austria’s AMS AG. And that is an image of the USS Enterprise etched into the light sensor die.