09-20-2014, 12:42 AM
iPhone 6 teardowns: QCOM, INVN, SWKS, AVGO, BRCM among winners • 9:36 AM
Eric Jhonsa, SA News Editor
- iFixit's teardown of the iPhone 6 Plus turned up five Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) chips, up from the three found in last year's teardown of the 5S and nearly matching the six found in certain Galaxy S5 teardowns.
- In addition to the expected Cat-4 LTE baseband modem, a Qualcomm power management IC, RF transceiver, receive-only chip (needed to enable LTE carrier aggregation), and envelope-tracking IC (relatively new, improves battery life) were found in the 6 Plus.
- In-line with rumors and the company's hints, an InvenSense (NYSE:INVN) motion sensor - specifically, a 6-axis gyroscope/accelerometer - was found. That suggests InvenSense has displaced STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) as the iPhone's motion sensor supplier.
- Two Skyworks (NASDAQ:SWKS) power amplifier modules are found, including a low-band LTE part. Avago (NASDAQ:AVGO) has both a high-band amplifier module, and an integrated ultra high-band amplifier/FBAR filter module. TriQuint (NASDAQ:TQNT) cab claim a 3G amplifier module, and merger partner RF Micro (NASDAQ:RFMD) an antenna switch module.
- Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) appears to remain the iPhone's combo chip supplier (courtesy of a module from partner Murata), and also supplies a touch controller IC. Chipworks thinks Broadcom also has the Wi-Fi slot for the Apple Watch.
- As expected, NXP (NASDAQ:NXPI) is supplying an NFC module and the M8 motion co-processsor and Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS) the audio codec IC. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) is providing a touch transmitter IC.
- Moving in response: INVN +1.9%. AVGO +1.5%. STM -3.9%.