Apple Watch Manufacturing Highlights

The article below summarize key aspects of the new Apple watch. It is important to remember that Apple goal is to extend its ecosystem to a new interface- the watch. It pushing the manufacturing envelope further-


‘”The encapsulation of the entire printed circuit board assembly into a single monolithic module is especially noteworthy,” Keller said. “Whereas many products might have some form of semi-flexible encapsulant applied to the board for protection, shock and vibration purposes, Apple has effectively created one large IC out of the entire assembly. This encapsulation is done by encasing the board in the same plastic/epoxy material used for conventional ICs. Indeed, many of the devices found inside the assembly are already encapsulated, effectively creating an IC-within-an-IC affair."

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple Watch has lowest cost to price ratio

Posted by IT-Online on May 5, 2015

The much-anticipated new Apple Watch has the lowest hardware costs compared to retail price of any Apple phone IHS Technology has researched, according to a preliminary estimate by IHS and its Teardown Mobile Handsets Intelligence Service.The teardown of the Apple Watch Sport by IHS Technology estimates that the actual hardware costs are only about 24 percent of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Estimated hardware cost to MSRP ratios for other Apple products reviewed by IHS are in the range of 29% to 38%.

The teardown of the Apple Watch Sport 38 mm by IHS Technology shows a bill of materials of $81.20 with the cost of production rising to $83.70 when the $2.50 manufacturing expense is added. The retail price of the Apple Watch Sport 38 mm is $349.00. The IHS Technology analysis does not include logistics, amortised capital expenses, overhead, SG&A, R&D, software, IP licensing and other variables throughout the supply chain such as the EMS provider.

“It is fairly typical for a first-generation product rollout to have a higher retail price versus hardware cost,” says Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst-materials and cost benchmarking services for IHS Technology. “While retail prices always tend to decrease over time, the ratio for the Apple Watch is lower than what we saw for the iPhone 6 Plus and other new Apple products, and could be of great benefit to Apple’s bottom line if sales match the interest the Apple Watch has generated.”

There are several new features and manufacturing methods used in the Apple Watch Sport, including: a Pulse Oximeter, Force Touch sensor, “Taptic Engine” feedback, encapsulated modular printed circuit board (PCB) assembly and stacked-die integrated circuits (IC). “While these features have been promoted by Apple and none are necessarily revelatory,” Keller says. “It is noteworthy that many features are appearing for the first time – in combination – in one device. It could be a bellwether for other future Apple products.”

The Taptic Engine built into the Apple Watch, and integrated with the loudspeaker, contains a linear actuator which provides haptic feedback and vibrations. “We found that the device consumes a substantial amount of space inside the watch, and we would expect further miniaturization of this function in future iterations of the product,” he adds.

The preliminary results of the teardown do not show any big surprises in the IC content; all of the manufacturers identified so far were expected. The Apple Watch NAND memory is a Toshiba Flash 8GB and DRAM is a Micron SDRAM 512Mb. Broadcom, STMicro, Maxim, Analogue Devices and NXP are used for connectivity and interface. One noteworthy change is a shift from Invensense to STMicro for the accelerometer/gyroscope.

“The display is LG’s plastic OLED display and the touchscreen overlay module is a TPK Slim GG utilising their ‘Force Touch’ technology,” Keller says. “Force Touch was recently incorporated into the latest MacBook and is expected to be found in the next iPhone generation.”

The fabrication of the enclosure continues the Apple “Unibody” tradition of precision machining from a single block of aluminium. Apple is now extending this design philosophy into a highly miniaturized realm, mating the legacy of precision watchmaking with Apple’s specialized manufacturing practices. As with their previous products, Apple has taken fabrication techniques – once typically restricted to low-volume manufacturing and prototyping – and scaled them into a high-volume production environment.

‘”The encapsulation of the entire printed circuit board assembly into a single monolithic module is especially noteworthy,” Keller said. “Whereas many products might have some form of semi-flexible encapsulant applied to the board for protection, shock and vibration purposes, Apple has effectively created one large IC out of the entire assembly. This encapsulation is done by encasing the board in the same plastic/epoxy material used for conventional ICs. Indeed, many of the devices found inside the assembly are already encapsulated, effectively creating an IC-within-an-IC affair.

“To provide electromagnetic shielding, the encapsulated PCB assembly is further treated with a metalized coating deposited over the surface,” Keller adds. “This shielding process is used in place of conventional stamped sheet metal shielding, saving a significant amount of space, as well as cutting down slightly on weight.”

The Apple Watch is equipped with inductive charging technology and is being shipped with a wireless charger, based on Apple’s own proprietary MagSafe charging technology.

“It has been speculated that the Apple Watch could be compatible with the Wireless Power Consortium’s (WPC) Qi wireless charging specification,” says Vicky Yussuff, analyst-power supplies & wireless power for IHS. “AppleInsider recently shared a video which appears to show the Apple Watch MagSafe charger being used to charge the Moto 360 smart watch. This would suggest that Apple’s charger is Qi-compatible.

“Apple has not been announced as a member of the WPC or even a supporter of the consortium, so it is unlikely that they have produced a ‘certified’ Qi product. However, the Qi specification is an open standard meaning it is still possible for Apple to build products which are compatible to the specification. This could be the case with the Apple Watch MagSafe charger,” Yussuff says. “Although it cannot be verified if both the Moto 360 smartwatch and
Magsafe wireless charger used in the video were both un-modified ‘off the shelf’ products, this could potentially be another boost for the wireless charging industry looking to increase interoperability.”

The Apple Watch battery appears to be somewhat simpler to replace than the batteries in many other Apple products. As long as the display can be carefully removed, the battery is attached with a simple snap-on connector.

Apple Watch battery life, A5-caliber CPU inside

Apple watch battery life is a key factor in how useful this new computer interface will be in our lives. Some information is discussed in the article below. 

"Apple opted to use a relatively powerful processor and high-quality screen for the Apple Watch, both of which contribute to significant power drain. Running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, the Apple S1 chip inside the Apple Watch is surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple's A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch,"

More about A5 power consumption is in May 2012 article Apple's A5 Die Shrink, Improve Battery Life, Cut Cost .

 Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple targets for Apple Watch battery life revealed, A5-caliber CPU inside

Although Apple has said that the Apple Watch will need to be charged nightly, the company has not disclosed any details on how long the wearable's battery will last. For the first time, people with knowledge of the Apple Watch's development have provided us with the specific performance targets Apple wants to achieve for the Apple Watch battery, but the actual numbers may fall short of those targets.

According to our sources, Apple opted to use a relatively powerful processor and high-quality screen for the Apple Watch, both of which contribute to significant power drain. Running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, the Apple S1 chip inside the Apple Watch is surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple's A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch, while the Retina-class color display is capable of updating at a fluid 60 frames per second.

Apple initially wanted the Apple Watch battery to provide roughly one full day of usage, mixing a comparatively small amount of active use with a larger amount of passive use. As of 2014, Apple wanted the Watch to provide roughly 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use versus 19 hours of combined active/passive use, 3 days of pure standby time, or 4 days if left in a sleeping mode. Sources, however, say that Apple will only likely achieve approximately 2-3 days in either the standby or low-power modes…

Apple has also been stress-testing the Apple Watch's battery life with pre-bundled and third-party applications. Our sources say that Apple is targeting 2.5 hours of "heavy" application use, such as processor-intensive gameplay, or 3.5 hours of standard app use. Interestingly, Apple expects to see better battery life when using the Watch's fitness tracking software, which is targeted for nearly 4 hours of straight exercise tracking on a single charge.

As Apple is positioning the Apple Watch as a timepiece, the company has conducted numerous tests to determine how long it can run purely in time-keeping modes. We're told that the Watch should be able to display its clock face for approximately three hours, including watch ticking animations, if nothing else is done with the device. However, it's unlikely that most people would actually keep the Apple Watch clock face turned on for even three hours straight in a single day. When the Watch screen is not in use, the display is powered off, and the clock demands much less energy.

Considered separately, the active use app, clock, and fitness numbers sound very low, but the reality is that people will passively wear the Apple Watch for most of the day, actively interacting with it only for short periods of time. That's why the Watch will be able to last the average user roughly a day on a single charge. We're told that Apple has been shooting for roughly 19 hours of mixed usage each day, but that the company may not hit that number in the first generation version.

Sources tell us that battery life has remained a source of concern for Apple over the past year, and was a contributing factor for Apple pushing back the retail launch from an originally planned late 2014 to early 2015. To test real-world performance in a variety of conditions, the company has circulated a surprisingly large number of test units of the Watch: nearly 3,000 are said to be currently roaming around, mostly the stainless steel variant.

Apple has also been working to perfect the MagSafe-based inductive charging mechanism for the Watch, which sources indicate was responsible for slower-than-expected recharging times that hopefully will be fixed in time for the product's release. The company has developed both plastic and stainless steel versions of the circular charger, potentially one for the $349 aluminum and plastic Apple Watch Sport, and the other for the higher-end models. It's unclear at this point whether the company will sell multiple versions of the charger, as Apple has only shown the metal variant, though the Apple Watch Edition is said to ship with a special box and charging dock that may incorporate the stainless steel MagSafe connector.

As of earlier this month, the Apple Watch is on track to ship by the end of March. We previously detailed how the Watch will integrate with the iPhone via an iOS 8.2-based Companion application.