NE Handbook Series 2011

Smartphone

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[ Smartphone History ]Birth in the 1990s,Widespread Adoption with the iPhone

[ Actual Smartphone Components ]

Taking Apart the iPhone 4

Glossary[ Components ]RF CircuitsApplication ProcessorsLiquid Crystal PanelsOrganic Electroluminescence PanelsCMOS SensorsPico ProjectorsTouch PanelsMotion SensorsNAND Flash MemoryDRAM GPS Ambient Light SensorsMLCC Li-Ion Rechargeable BatteriesUSBHDMISIM Cards[ Wireless Communication ]GSMW-CDMACDMA2000Mobile WiMAXLTEWireless LAN[ short-Range Communication ]Bluetooth Low Energy and ANTNFCWireless Power Supplies[ Operating System ]AndroidWindows Phone 7iOSApplication Store

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Rapidly Changing Smartphones Tap Digi-Key’s Potential

Smartphones are proliferating rapidly, with many companies

selling designs sporting a wide variety of electronic compo-

nents, including touch panels and gyroscope sensors. What

are the major trends in the smartphone market? How can

smartphones be designed most effectively? And what strategy

does components distributor Digi-Key Corp of the US have?

Nikkei Electronics interviewed Randall Restle in his new post

as Director of Design Support Services and asked him about

smartphone market trends, highly effective design methodol-

ogy, and the future strategy of Digi-Key.

Q　�How�would�you�assess� the�current�smartphone�market�?

Restle　Smartphone�designers�did�not�invent�snappy�color�

graphic�displays,�touch�screens,� interconnectivity,�and�

built-in�sensors�such�as�accelerometers,�GPS,�and�gyro-

scopes,�but�they�have�certainly�influenced�embedded�device�

designers,�component�manufacturers,�and�distributors�to�

think�about�and�include�these�elements� in�their�product�

plans.��Further,�smartphone�economies�of�scale�have�helped�

reduce�the�cost�of�smartphone-like�components.� � It�has�

never�been�easier�to� incorporate�these�components� into�

any�embedded�electronic�device.��Distributors�like�Digi-Key�

have�smartphone�components�in�stock�and�available�for�im-

mediate�shipment.

Q　�How�does�smartphone�design�impact�other�portable�devices�?

Restle　A�newly�introduced�device�immediately� looks�old�

and�dated�if� it�doesn’t�share�a�smartphone’s�attributes.��

What�happened�to�the�cell�phone�itself�–�that�they�instantly�

looked�“old-fashioned”�when�Apple�introduced�its�iPhone�–�

is�happening�to�all�devices.� �Automobile�dashboards,�MP3�

players,�GPS�units,� tablet�PCs,�even�household�appliances�

like�ranges�and�refrigerators�are�losing�their�knobs�and�con-

trols� in�favor�of�touch�screens�overlaid�on�high-resolution�

displays.� �This�gives�these�devices�smooth�edges�that�are�

easy�to�keep�clean�and�that� look�new.� �The�smartphone’s��

influence�is�pervasive.

｜ Connectivity, Size Are Critical ｜

Q　How�critical�is�connectivity�?Restle　Connectivity�has�also�become�a�requirement.��

Randall RestleDirector of Design Support Services Digi-Key Corp

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There�are�laundromats�at�universities� in�the�United�States�

that�tweet�“followers”�to�signify�a�washer�or�dryer�has�

completed�its�cycle�and�is�available�for�the�next�user.� �Of�

course,�users�are�receiving�those�messages�on�their�smart-

phones.��There�are�other�examples�showing�how�pervasive�

connectivity�has�become.� �Traveling�gourmet�“lunch�wag-

ons”�notify� loyal�followers�of�the�meal�of�the�day,�provide�

a�picture�of�the�dish,�provide�the�wagon’s� location,�and�

identify�times�of�service�for�gourmet-seeking�patrons�who�

follow�their� lunch�with�their�smartphone.� �Additionally,�

there�are�kitchen�appliances�that� include�videophone�and�

Internet�browser�applications.

� �Smartphones�have�also�influenced�“size�of�performance.”��

Many�children�regularly�watch�their�favorite�videos�on�

handheld�devices.��Custom�and�semi-custom�circuitry,�such�

as�complex�programmable�logic�devices�(CPLDs),�have�

made�graphics�in�small�packages�as�fast�as,�or�faster�than,�

desktop�equivalents�with�more�new�applications�exploit-

ing�this�capability�than�on�traditional�platforms.� �Simply�

put,�there�is�more�computing�horsepower�per�cubic�unit�of�

space�in�a�handheld�smartphone�than�in�traditional,� large�

electronic�devices.

｜ Effective Use of Design Kits and Houses ｜

Q　�What�are�the�most� important� issues�for�effectively�designing�smartphones�and�selecting�components�?

Restle　One�might�wonder�how�to�start�designing�a�new�

product�given�the�common�expectation�of�features�inspired�

by�hand-sized�smartphones.� �Thankfully,�many�component�

suppliers�offer�development�kits�and�evaluation�boards�to�

investigate�certain�technologies�and�allow�a�designer�to�

form�a�plan�of�attack�to� include�the�chosen�technologies.��

Distributors� like�Digi-Key�stock�these�kits�and�boards�as�

well.� �Starting�from�ground�zero�is�the�hard�way�to�go�to-

day.��The�job�is�not�to�invent�new�technologies,�but�instead�

to�include�technologies�your�customers�value�the�most�in�a�

cost-effective�way.

��Finally,�if�the�new�technologies�are�too�new�or�wide-rang-

ing�to�fit�the�expertise�of�your�development�staff,�there�are�

third-party�design�service�providers�(DSPs)�with�the�neces-

sary�expertise�that�can�augment�your�capabilities.� �These�

DSPs�can�add�the�unfamiliar�technologies�while�your�team�

focuses�on�what� it�does�best,� to�assure�the�main�function�

of�your�product�remains�intact�and�is�uncompromised�with�

the�new�features�the�market�demands.��

� �Digi-Key�has�strong�relationships�with�various�device�

vendors�that�know�the�cutting-edge�technologies�of�smart-

phones.��Such�vendors�have�been�supplying�valuable�prod-

ucts�for� inclusion�in�next-generation�smartphones.� �All�of�

these�products�can�be�viewed�and�ordered�on�Digi-Key’s�

Android�/iPhone�application.

Digi-Key CorporationTel：1-800-344-4539 Fax：218-681-3380 （US ）URL：http://www.digikey.com/

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eSmartphone History

Birth in the 1990s,Widespread Adoption with the iPhone

The term “smartphone” is used to signify a mobile tele-

phone that adds powerful and sophisticated functions to

conventional mobile phones capable of only telephony and

short message service (SMS) text. It is often described as a

fusion of a personal digital assistant (PDA) offering memo,

calculator and schedule functions, and a mobile phone.

The history of smartphones can be divided broadly into

three eras: the early years of the 1990s when smartphones

first appeared, the era of surging use in business from

2000–2007, and the most recent era of widespread use by

the general public, from 2007 until the present. In Japan

the introduction of i-Mode service in 1997 supported sig-

nificant evolution in handset functionality, and after that

point most handsets offered in Japan fit the definition of

smartphones. To avoid unnecessary confusion, however, this

history concentrates primarily on smartphones in Europe

and America.

The dawn of smartphones (1990s)

The very first smartphone in the world is said to be the

IBM Simon, released to the market by IBM in 1994. The ter-

minal was provided with a stylus and touch panel, offering

not only telephone conversations, but also PDA and gaming

functions. The operating system (OS) was the Zaurus OS,

which was then being used in PDAs from Sharp.

In 1996 Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a

clamshell smartphone. It functioned as a mobile phone when

folded shut, and opened to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, 　

cross key pad and black-and-white landscape display. The

OS was GEOS, from Breadbox Computer Company of the US.

The Nokia Communicator gained widespread adoption in

the business world, and was followed by the Nokia 9110 in

1998. In 2000 the Nokia 9110i was released with support

for mobile phone wavebands used in the United States, and

the terminal also evolved to use the Symbian OS.

In 1997 Ericsson of Sweden released the GS88, a terminal

similar to the Nokia 9000 Communicator. The word smart-

phone is thought to have been used for the very first time in

material introducing this product.

Business adoption (2000–2006)

In 2000 number of smartphones appeared, running gen-

eral-purpose OSes designed for use in PDAs and embedded

equipment. A few of the more well-known were Symbian,

Palm OS and Windows CE.

The Symbian OS was first used in the Ericsson R380

Smartphone. The tenkey pad opened up like a door, reveal-

ing a landscape touch panel for PDA functionality. It could

be used as a mobile phone when closed. In 2000, Nokia fol-

lowed Ericsson’s lead with smartphones running Symbian

OS, and in fact adopted Symbian OS for all its smartphones.

The first smartphone to use Palm OS was the Kyocera

6035, from Kyocera of Japan. It was similar to the Ericsson

R380, with the tenkey pad folding out to allow use as a Palm

PDA. The Kyocera 6035 was released in February 2001.

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eSmartphone History

The Windows CE smartphone was the Microsoft Windows

Powered Smartphone 2002, announced by Microsoft in

2002. The first terminal to mount the OS was the Orange

SPV, sold by Microsoft itself, and manufactured by HTC of

Taiwan. Later renamed Windows Mobile, a variety of termi-

nals were released to the market from companies including

Samsung Electronics and Sharp.

The first incarnation of the popular BlackBerry, from Re-

search In Motion of Canada, appeared in 2003. It featured a

QWERTY keyboard, e-mail, SMS and browsing functions in

an integrated implementation.

All of these terminals aimed at corporate use, and were

provided with an array of business applications. As a result,

they penetrated the general consumer market very little.

The smartphone as commodity (from 2007)

Today the general public is buying and using smart-

phones. The change began with the released of the iPhone

by Apple in June 2007. It came with a user interface (UI) ca-

pable of handling almost all operations, browsing and e-mail

functions equivalent to those found in personal computers,

music play apps that synched with iTunes, and more. It

turned the smartphone into a device that could be used by

anyone.

Following the growing trend, Google announced the An-

droid software platform (see page 52) for smartphones in

November 2007. The first Android-powered smartphone,

the T-Mobile G1 manufactured by HTC, was released by

T-Mobile USA in 2008. A host of Android smartphones ap-

peared thereafter, from companies including Motorola Mo-

bility, Samsung Electronics, and Sweden-Japan joint venture

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

Even Microsoft, which had concentrated on developing

smartphone OS for corporate use, changed its approach as

a result of the success of iPhone and Android technologies,

disclosing Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Phone 7 (see

page 53), both emphasizing use by the general public. A

terminal running Windows Mobile 6.5 was released in Octo-

ber 2009, and the Windows Phone 7 terminal appeared in

October 2010.

The 1st-generation iPhone brought the smartphone to the general public

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eActual Smartphone Components

Taking Apart the iPhone 4Apple iPhone series is driving the global smartphone mar-

ket, and remains a hit worldwide: about 1.7 million 4th-gen-

eration iPhone 4 models were sold in only three days after

its release in June 2010. Over a year after initial release, the

fever shows no signs of abating. A survey by IDC shows total

iPhone shipment from April through June 2011 as about

20.3 million units, 2.4 times the level of the same quarter in

2010. In terms of units shipped per quarter, this puts Apple

into the top slot worldwide, ahead of Nokia.

When announcing the iPhone 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs

stressed the thinness of the case at only 9.3mm, the high-

definition 326ppi display and other hardware specs. “It’s not

like Apple to emphasize the hardware like that,” complained

one engineer in Japan, echoing similar comments by many in

the field. The iPhone series introduced a whole new range of

concepts into the mobile phone market that are now taken

for granted, but it appears to have evolved into a mature

product. And, in fact, when the Japan version of the iPhone

4 (32 Gbyte spec) is broken down, it shows just how Apple’s

design approach is much more detailed than it used to be.

Design detail to the level of Japanese mobile phones

When the iPhone 4 is disassembled, you can see how com-

ponents are packed tightly into the case, which measures

about 115.2mm x 58.6mm x 9.3mm (Fig. 1). Many of the

engineers who took part in the breakdown agreed it looked

like it had been developed by a Japanese manufacturer.

A detailed examination of the components shows signs of

Earphone jack

External connector (charging, etc.)

Mute button

Power button

Home button

LCD panel, touch panel and case front

Ambient light sensorVideo conferencing camera

Phone speakerVibrator

Chassis

Volume

MicroSIM card

Speaker module (integral with part of main antenna)

Main board

Camera module

Li-polymer rechargeable battery

Rear cover

Fig. 1　Inside the iPhone 4The LCD panel module, Li-polymer rechargeable battery, and camera module are flexible boards connected to the main board. Photos: Hiroshi Nakamura

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eActual Smartphone Components

cooperative design tuning with component manufacturers,

and design features to boost manufacturing yield. The main

board, for example, mounts a Wireless LAN/Bluetooth module

with a unique shape (Fig. 2). One mobile phone engineer com-

mented “I’ve never seen anything like this before! Mounting

real estate was limited, and you can see how Apple drew up

detailed dimensions and specs for each function block, then

worked with component manufacturers to implement them.”

Their attention to cost reduction is evident in the Li-ion

(Li-polymer) rechargeable battery. In the iPhone 4 the bat-

tery is connected to the main board with a connector, and

has a plastic sheet on it to simplify removal. In prior models,

the battery was affixed to the case with strong double-sided

tape. Many other modules in the iPhone 4 are also connected

to the main board using connectors. The objective seems to

have been to reduce manufacturing cost by making it pos-

sible to replace and repair components in block units.

The main board itself is mounted with key components

on both sides (Fig. 2). The board measures about 86mm x

18mm, with a total of 10 layers. A large number of “0402”

components (components measuring 0.4mm x 0.2mm) are

used to boost mounting density. Of the 664 components

on the main board, about a third of them – 227 – are 0402

components. Gaps between components are narrower, for

the smaller board. A Japanese packaging engineer points out

that the component spacing is as tight as used by Japanese

engineers, and even tighter in a few places. It is quite pos-

sible that a Japanese manufacturer is responsible for the

combination of 10-layer board, and numerous 0402 compo-

nents and fine-pitch connectors.

A4実装面

フラッシュ・メモリ実装面

18mm

86mm

●①

●②

●③●④

●⑤

●⑦

●⑥

●⑧●⑨

●⑩

●⑪

●⑫

●⑬

●⑭

●⑰●⑮

●⑯

A4実装面

フラッシュ・メモリ実装面

18mm

86mm

●①

●②●③ ●④

●⑤

●⑦

●⑥

●⑧

●⑨

●⑩

●⑪

Side with flash memory① 32Gbit NAND flash memory, Samsung Electronics,

K9PFG08U5M② Geomagnetic sensor, Asahi Kasei Microdevices, 8975③ Audio decoder, Cirrus Logic, 338S0589④ 0525E3⑤ Touch panel controller IC, TI, 343S0499⑥ Power supply IC, Dialog Semiconductor, 338S0867⑦ AFC 9A0 91●⑧ TG202⑨ Baseband processing IC, Infineon Technologies, 337S

3833⑩ SDRAM, Intel, 36MY1EF⑪ 13F04

Side with A4 chip① Microprocessor，Samsung Electronics, A4 APL0398② Wireless LAN/Bluetooth transceiver IC, Broadcom,

BCM4329FKU8C③ GPS receiver IC, Broadcom, BCM4750●BG④ R6111⑤ 10C0 019A 0075⑥ 1240 ●●0B⑦ Gyrosensor, STMicroelectronics, AGD1 2021 F36CS⑧ 3-axis acceleration sensor, STMicroelectronics, 2016

33DH BYGBQ⑨ NXN 04⑩ GSM/W-CDMA transceiver IC, Infineon Technologies,

338S0626⑪ SAW Filter, Murata Manufacturing⑫ Power amp/duplexer module, Skyworks Solutions,

SKY77459-17⑬ Power amp/duplexer module, TriQuint Semiconductor,

TMQ676091⑭ Power amp/antenna switch module, Skyworks

Solutions, SKY77541-32⑮ Power amp/duplexer module, Skyworks Solutions,

SKY77452-20⑯ Power amp/duplexer module, TriQuint Semiconductor,

TQM666092⑰ GBA748

Uniquely-shaped Wireless LAN/　　Bluetooth

　　module

Fig. 2　Main board with reduced mounting areaDiagram shows the functions, supplying manufac-turers and markings of major components on the main board. Component functions and manufac-turers are guesses by Nikkei Electronics, based on interviews, investigations, component markings and other data. Illegible characters are indicated by the ● mark. Photos: Hiroshi Nakamura

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The iPhone 4 Mobile Communication ModuleRF circuits for several different mobile communication standards and wavebands are implemented in multiple semiconductors.

RF transceiver IC

Module com-bining GSM power amp and antenna switch

Combined W-CDMA power amp and duplexer

Flip side

Baseband circuit

RF circuitry

Glossary

Components

When a single smartphone model is sold worldwide, differ-ent wavebands are used for mobile communication in each nation, so that the device must offer multiple RF transceiver ICs and power amp modules. The number of wavebands to be supported will increase in the future as the existing GSM (page 38) and W-CDMA (page 39) communication methods are joined by LTE (pages 42–43). Already the competition is intensifying to develop semiconductor products capable of utilizing multiple wavebands with a minimal number of com-ponents.

The RF circuitry is positioned between the digital circuits and the antenna, acting as a bridge between the two.

In the RF transmitter, the modulation circuit converts the input digital signal into a phase-shift carrier wave, which is amplified by the power amp. The amplified signal is filtered to strip out extraneous noise, and then transmitted from the antenna.

In the receiver the signal from the antenna is first filtered to extract the target frequency. This is amplified in a low-noise amplifier (LNA), and phase shift used to produce the digital signal.

Generally, RF circuits use a single antenna for both recep-tion and transmission. As a result, when different wavebands are used for sending and receiving in a frequency division duplex (FDD) design, the device is provided with a duplexer, which acts as a filter to prevent transmission signals from being input into the receiving circuit. Likewise, when a single frequency is used at different times in a time division duplex (TDD) design, a switch is needed to select either the send or receive circuit. These are all part of the RF circuitry.

When implemented in a smartphone, the RF circuit can be roughly split into the RF transceiver IC and the power amp module. The RF transceiver IC usually contains the modula-tion circuit, reception LNA and filters, which the power amp module usually integrates transmission filters and duplexer. In some cases, however, duplexer and filters may be imple-mented in separate packages.

RF Circuits

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Major High-End Smartphone Application Processors Shipping in 2011 and Beyond

Glossary

Components

Application processors are ICs integrating the functions necessary to run specified applications. In smartphones, ap-plication processors usually include not only the central pro-cessing unit (CPU), but also memory controller, voice codec processor, graphics processing unit (GPU), and controllers for USB and SD memory card interfaces. Some designs for smartphones, like the MSM8x60 series from Qualcomm, also include baseband circuits to handle mobile communication digital processing.

Almost all smartphone application processors use a micro-processor instruction set compliant with the ARM architec-ture defined by ARM of the UK.

Trending toward multi-core designs, high clock rates

To answer surging demand for more powerful functions and higher performance, the CPUs driving application pro-cessors are evolving rapidly toward faster clocks and multi-core designs. The iPhone 3G released by Apple in July 2008, for example, came with an application processor based on the ARM11, running at 412MHz. The iPhone 3GS in June 2009 featured the Cortex-A8, one generation beyond the ARM11, with an operating frequency of 600MHz. The iPhone 4 in June 2010 boosted the frequency to 1GHz. The Galaxy S II Android smartphone from Samsung Electronics in April 2011 uses a Cortex-A8 based dual-core CPU with an operating frequency of 1.2GHz.

The trend seems likely to continue: At Mobile World Con-gress 2011 in Barcelona, Spain in February 2011, both Qual-comm and ST-Ericsson of Switzerland announced plans to

Application Processors

ship 2.5GHz designs before the end of 2011. NVIDIA showed a working demo of its new 4-core Kal-El (development code-name), the next-generation Tegra chip now in development, adding it has “begun sample-shipping the first quad-core processor in the world for mobile applications.” A variety of smartphones and tablets mounting two to four CPU cores and running at speeds of up to 2GHz are likely to appear in 2012.

Manufac-turer

NVIDIA Qualcomm Renesas Mobile

ST-Ericsson

Texas Instruments

Product name

Kal-El (development codename)

SnapdragonAPQ8064

SH-Mobile APE5R

OMAP5430

CPU ARMCortex-Aseries (details not disclosed)

Krait (proprietary CPU; instruction set compatible with ARMv7)

ARM Cortex-A9

ARM Cortex-A15

ARM Cortex-A15

CPU cores 4 4 2 2 2

Max. CPU operating frequency

Not disclosed 2.5GHz Not disclosed 2.5GHz 2GHz

GPU 12-core NVIDIA GPU

Adreno 320 (200 million polygons/s draw performance)

Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543MP

Imagination Technologies Rogue (development codename)

Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX544MP

CMOS technology

40nm 28nm Not disclosed

28nm 28nm

Sample ship date

Feb. 2011 Early 2012 June 2011 2011 Second half 2011

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iPhone 4’s Liquid Crystal PanelIThe IPS mode turns the supply voltage on and off to rotate liquid crystal molecules horizontally with respect to the glass, making it a good choice for use with touch input.

(a) Disassembled iPhone 4 （b）Basic principle of IPS mode (cross-section)

Liquid crystal panel (3.5-inch, IPS mode, transmissive; TMD manf.)

Fingertip pressure has little effect on liquid crystal molecule orientation

Electric field

Front caseVoltage off Voltage on

Electrode

Liquid crystal molecules

Glass sheet

Electrode

Liquid crystal molecules rotate horizontally

Glossary

Liquid crystal panels are display devices utilizing charac-teristics of liquid crystal molecules such as optical anisotropy (birefringence) and dielectric ratio anisotropy. In conjunction with polarizers, they can express tonal images by passing or blocking light. The liquid crystal molecules themselves do not emit light, so a light source is needed, whether backlight, frontlight or ambient.

Active matrix liquid crystal panels, using thin-film transis-tors (TFT) as the drive elements, are gaining widespread adoption in many types of electronic equipment, including TVs, mobile phones, smartphones and digital cameras. De-pending on how the liquid crystal molecules are oriented, there are a variety of display modes, such as twisted nematic (TN), vertical alignment (VA), in-plane switching (IPS) and optically compensated bend (OCB).

Compared to conventional mobile phones, smartphones offer liquid crystal panels with larger screen sizes and bet-ter definition. Most of the high-end smartphones shipped in 2011 boast screen sizes of four inches or larger, with display resolutions of at least 480 pixel x 800 pixel (wide VGA). Even mid-range models offer at least 3-inch displays with 320 pixel x 480 pixel (half VGA) resolution. The IPS mode is becoming more common as it minimizes the effect of touch input on display image appearance.

One of the key reasons that high-end smartphones from various vendors are offering larger displays with better reso-lution, coupled with IPS mode operation, is the enormous success of the iPhone 4, released in 2010. The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch double VGA liquid crystal panel with 640 pixel x 960 pixel resolution. Apple emphasizes display definition, refer-ring to this display system as the Retina display. IPS mode is well-suited to touch input because the liquid crystal molecules are rotated horizontally with respect to the glass, minimizing the effect of fingertip pressure on molecule orientation.

Japanese and Korean panel manufacturers have leveraged their technologies for higher panel definition to take large shares of the growing smartphone liquid crystal panel mar-ket. For VGA and better liquid crystal panels of four inches and larger, it is impossible to attain an adequate aperture ra-tio without using low-temperature poly-crystalline Si (LTPS) TFTs as the drive devices. Japanese and Korean panel manu-facturers have been investing into LTPS TFT technology and manufacturing lines for some time now, and their technical superiority provides added value.

Components

Liquid Crystal Panels

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Active Matrix OLEDs Enter the MainstreamSince 2008, active matrix OLED panels have gained widespread adoption, especially in mobile equipment and smartphones.

Portable TVsDigital camerasPortable media players

▶Improved definition▶Gradual expansion 　in applications

Through 2007 2008 and beyond

Mobile equipmentMobile phones for domestic market (QVGA class)

Mobile phones and smartphones for the domestic and overseas markets (VGA class)

Components

Organic Electroluminescence Panels

Glossary

Organic electroluminescence panels are display devices utilizing electroluminescence through organic compounds. Electroluminescence is the phenomenon where light is emit-ted when voltage is applied to a specific substance. The mechanism of light emission is the same as in LEDs, namely injection and re-coupling of electrons and holes, for which reason they are often referred to as organic LEDs or OLEDs. They are viewed as the optimal choice for the next genera-tion of displays, offering the response speed of self-emitting devices coupled with wide viewing angle and brilliant color-ation.

Depending on the mechanism used to emit the light, OLED panels are grouped into two types: the active matrix (AM) type, where organic electroluminescent material emits light on a per-pixel basis using a thin-film transistor (TFT) sub-strate, and the passive matrix (PM) type, where an electrode array causes optical emission on a per-line basis. AM OLED panels are viewed as the most promising for next-generation

displays due to their suitability in high-definition, large-size applications. The first commercial implementation was a panel mounted in a digital camera from Eastman Kodak in April 2003, developed jointly with Sanyo Electric. Consider-able technical obstacles, however, limited the technology to a few mobile telephones through 2007.

The AM OLED panel began to enjoy widespread use from 2008, showing up in a range of mobile phones, smartphones, portable media players, digital cameras and other portable equipment by offering screen size and definition competitive with LCD panels. These products all handle video, and users demanded the high display performance of OLED panels. Today they are making steady inroads into smartphones, starting with the Galaxy S II from Samsung Electronics, while Sony Computer Entertainment plans to use a 5-inch AM OLED panel in the PlayStation Vita portable game system slated for release at the end of 2011.

Although adoption is increasing in mobile gear, there are few manufacturers volume-producing active matrix OLED panels. Samsung Mobile Display holds a monopolistic share, leaving other manufacturers behind when it comes to capi-tal investment scale. Samsung Mobile Display put its new OLED panel manufacturing line into operation in the second quarter of 2011 (April to June), handling 5.5th-generation (1300mm x 1500mm) glass sheets. The new facility is ex-pected to boost manufacturing capacity even more.

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Mounting Projectors in Mobile Gear(a) is the Beam smartphone from Samsung, and (b) the F-04B mo-bile phone developed by Fujitsu for NTT DoCoMo. The projector can be connected to the F-04B in place of the keyboard, after de-taching keyboard and display.

(a)Samsung’s Beam (b)Fujitsu-developed F-04B

Capturing Every Photon with Backside IlluminationBecause there is no metallization layer between the photodiodes (which handle photoelectric conversion) and the color filters in back-side illumination (BSI) sensors, less incoming light is lost.

Conventional front-side illumination Backside illumination

Incident light

Metallization layer

Microlens

Removed in BSI designs

Light sensing surface photo

diode

photodiode

Components Components

CMOS Sensors Pico Projectors

Glossary

Pico projectors are miniature projectors designed for use with mobile equipment. Compared to desktop units, they offer much better portability, and can be used affixed to the body.

The smaller size is made possible by replacing the stan-dard ultra-high performance (UHP) lamp light source with LEDs and lasers, simplifying power supply and heat radiation mechanism, and shrinking the optical system. The display device can be the same liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) as a conventional projector, a digital micromirror device (DMD), or microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirrors.

In 2009 the first mobile phones and compact digital cam-eras with onboard pico projectors were released, stimulating high hopes for the pico projector market. If they become common in portable equipment, it will mean explosive growth in shipment volume. A survey by Pacific Media Asso-ciates of the US estimates a market of about 17 million units in 2014 for internal pico projectors, and about 23 million when external projectors are included.

In this imaging device, the charges accumulated in the photodiodes are converted into voltages at the pixels, ampli-fied and read. CMOS sensor development is heating up for use in mobile phones because of their small size and low power demands. The backside illumination (BSI) design is becoming the most common type of CMOS sensor for use in smartphone cameras, because it makes it possible to capture high quality imagery with a smaller package. Six firms have initiated volume production: Sony, Omni Vision, Aptina Imag-ing, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, and Toshiba. CMOS sensors are fabricated by first forming the photodiode (handling photoelectric conversion) on the silicon wafer, and then forming the metallization. If the wafer is illuminated from the top after the metallization is formed it is referred to as a front-side illumination design, and if from the metal-lization-free back side of the wafer then it is BSI. It is much less likely for the metallization in BSI designs to reflect light received on the sensor surface, so that for a given input they output brighter imagery than front-side illumination sensors.

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On-Cell Touch PanelThe on-cell type, with touch sensor formed on the front surface of the display panel, is becoming increasingly common. Samsung Elec-tronics has named its on-cell OLED panel the “Super AMOLED,” and adopted it in the Galaxy S and other smartphones. (Diagram by Nik-kei Electronics based on material courtesy Samsung Electronics)

「Galaxy S」

OLED panel with conventional touch panel

Front glass

Touch panelTouch sensor (electrode pattern, etc.) Touch sensor

(electrode pattern, etc.) formed on panel front surface

OLED panel

Front glass

OLED panel

“Super AMOLED” (in-cell OLED panel

with integral touch sensor)

Galaxy S uses integral design for

thinner display, improved transparency

Glossary

Components

is the Galaxy S smartphone from Samsung Electronics. The firm chose “on-cell” technology, where transparent electrode patterns or other touch sensors are formed on the OLED panel surface. Compared to older designs where the touch panel was independent of the OLED panel, it is both thin-ner and lighter. In terms of display performance, reflectance has been cut to 4%, providing a significant improvement in outdoor readability, a common problem in OLED panels. The company has dubbed the integral touch sensor/OLED panel the “Super AMOLED,” and has launched a marketing program positioning it as a key element in differentiating its own smartphones from those of the competition.

In-cell technology, on the other hand, mounts the touch sensor devices inside the display panel pixels. Prototypes have been shown by several panel manufacturers for a few years, but the technology still suffers from low display panel manufacturing yield and difficulty in ensuring accurate pres-sure sensing. As a result, there is very little volume produc-tion under way.

Touch panels are transparent devices that can detect areas subject to finger or style pressure, mounted on top of display panels. Broadly speaking, there are five methods of detecting contact: capacitive, resistive, surface acoustic wave, infrared, and electromagnetic induction. Of these, smartphones and tablets use either capacitive or resistive.

Capacitive touch panels were the trigger to the success of Apple’s iPhone, and the market is growing rapidly. They are available in both surface and projected types, but smart-phones and tablets use projected capacitive designs. In this technology, electrode grids are formed in X and Y directions, and the capacitance between the two grid changes under finger pressure. This change is detected by the controller IC, which then localizes the position of the change.

The resistive touch panel is the oldest type. The basic structure is a glass sheet with a transparent conductive film on top, followed by a spacer, and then a second transparent conductive film. When the top film is touched, it shorts to the lower film, and the resulting voltage drop can be used to determine the position.

Development of in-cell and on-cell designs

Combinations of touch panels and display panels are be-coming popular primarily in mobile equipment. They elimi-nate the need for external touch panels, making possible displays that are thinner, lighter, more readable and less expensive.

One representative example of this integrated technology

Touch Panels

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Inferred path walked in a room (demo by CSR)

Walking through a virtual building (demo by InvenSense)

Hand wobble correctionUser interface operation

Game operation

HDD drop detection Inferred

body motion

Augmented reality (AR)Inferred

pedestrian path

Smaller, cheaper products expand range of application

Developments in sensor fusion technology

Detecting terminal operations by user

Inferring user motion

New Applications From Multiple SensorsIn the past it was common to use independent sensors for accel-eration, angular velocity and geomagnetism, but now they are being combined for tasks such as inferring walking and other user motion.

Glossary

Components

sors can be combined to detect actual user motion. Some applications that are achieving increasing use are pedestrian dead reckoning, which estimates how a person walks in-doors, and augmented reality (AR) to link the real world with virtual space. In these 9-axis motion sensors, in addition to sensor specifications such as precision, size and cost, rising importance is being assigned to what type of information can be extracted from sensor output, and how easily.

The term motion sensor refers to a range of acceleration and angular velocity (gyroscopic) sensors used to detect physical motion of equipment. Based on the sensor output it is possible to infer how the user moved the equipment, or how far the user moved in which direction, and this data can then be utilized in equipment operation.

Acceleration and gyroscopic sensors both change user motion into signals. The output of the acceleration sensor varies with the amplitude of the acceleration applies to the object. A 3-axis sensor, capable of measuring acceleration in three directions (up-down, left-right and front-rear) can measure motion in any direction in three-dimensional space. Gyro sensors detect the Coriolis force generated by rotating objects, outputting the angular velocity.

Acceleration sensors were first used to detect hard disk drives (HDD) falling, and angular velocity sensors to cor-rect camera hand wobble and car navigation system vehicle direction. In about 2005–2007, the technology started to be used to sense deliberate user actions such as shaking or tilting. A number of products appeared that utilized accelera-tion sensors to detect how the user moved the equipment, such as the V603SH mobile phone from Sharp, Nintendo’s Wii game system controller, and the first Apple iPhone.

More recently smartphones and a host of other equipment are beginning to sport 3-axis acceleration sensors, angular velocity sensors and geomagnetism sensors. In fact, many products now mount three 3-axis sensors, for a total of 9-axis sensors onboard. The output from the multiple sen-

Motion Sensors

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(a)The Samsung Electronics 21nm design

(b) The Hynix Semiconductor 20nm design

▶21nm generation, 　3-layer 　metallization▶Write speed: 　25Mbyte/s▶I/O bandwidth: 　400Mbyte/s▶Erase time: 5ms

Cross-section along bit line Cross-section along word line

Cutting-Edge NAND Flash MemoryThe 2011 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, the inter-national conference on semiconduc to r circuits held in June 2011, saw two an-n ouncemen t s : ( a ) Sam sung Electronics’ circuit technology for a 21nm design, and (b) 20nm manufactur-ing technology from Hynix Semiconductor.

Glossary

Components

tronics announced a 21nm design, and Hynix Semiconductor the technology for a 20nm chip.

NAND flash memory continues to surge ahead, but it seems increasingly likely that geometry shrink will hit a wall in three or four years. When the area of the memory cells (the units of information storage) get smaller, the number of elec-trons that can be used in storage drops, and it becomes more difficult to assure accurate information storage. A source at Toshiba comments “We should be able to shrink down to the 1Y generation (18–15nm), and even the 1Z generation (14–10nm), but beyond that is post-NAND.” As a result, it is likely that the continuing increase in NAND flash memory ca-pacity and dropping costs will stop in about 2015. Memory manufacturers intend to continue experimenting with new technologies, such as 3D stacking of memory cells.

NAND flash memory is a type of non-volatile semiconduc-tor memory that can be batch-erased and rewritten, but retains data even when the power supply is off. It provides small size, low weight and sturdiness not possible with hard disks, and is widely used today as memory in mobile phones, smartphones, portable music players, digital cameras, cam-corders and more. Smartphones announced in 2011 have up to 64Gbytes of NAND flash memory onboard.

NAND flash memory was invented by Toshiba in 1989. Provided with an input/output serial interface made compat-ible with that used in HDDs, it was intended from the start to function as a storage medium, but the market didn’t mate-rialize. It took almost a decade, until the mid-1990s, before significant market growth occurred.

The driving force behind widespread adoption was the steadily shrinking manufacturing technology. In the last few years, NAND flash memory geometry has shrunk rapidly even in comparison to other semiconductor devices. Con-cretely, it has been achieving one generation every 15 to 18 months, packing twice the memory capacity into the same chip area it used to have. This meant equipment manufactur-ers could get double the capacity for the same component cost by just waiting 15 to 18 months. Countless equipment manufacturers, including Apple, jumped on the opportunity.

State-of-the-art volume-production chips currently use 19nm to 27nm manufacturing technology, with 64Gbits per chip. Toshiba began volume production of a 19nm-genera-tion chip in July 2011, while in June 2011 Samsung Elec-

NAND Flash Memory

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Dropping GPS Chip PricesA chip integrating the GPS baseband and RF units dropped under 300 yen in about 2010, and is already beginning to show up in digital cameras and other products with position functions. New ap-plications are being developed as costs drop.

2012: Under 200 yen

Under 100 yen

About 2010: About 300 yen

About 2007: 500 yen or more

Increased sensitivity (faster measurement), reduced power consumption and small mounting area as prices drop

GPS positioning chip cost

Navigation systems PND Digital cameras ToysNew applications as prices drop

Date

Tablet terminals

Glossary

DRAM is a type of volatile semiconductor memory that stores information as capacitor charges. The access time is a short 10ns. DRAM is not suited to long-term data storage, because of data volatility, but it is used as main memory in a host of equipment including servers, PCs, mobile phones and smartphones.

In smartphones, DRAM capacity is usually between 512Mbyte and 1Gbyte. This is roughly half the amount com-monly found in PCs, but it is possible that capacity will reach parity with PCs in the near future. Already DRAM manufac-turers are strengthening their approaches to mobile gear in preparation for the development. Smartphones and tablets are demanding that components be thinner than ever, and with improved performance, and it is likely that the logic, DRAM and NAND flash memory current packaged in sepa-rate chips will be single-chipped as a result. Semiconductor manufacturers are now competing in technology to intercon-nect these chips, such as through-silicon vias (TSV).

Elpida Memory and Samsung Electronics have accelerated their projects to develop TSV technology. Elpida Memory, for example, announced in June 2011 that it had begun sample-shipping a DDR3 SDRAM package holding four 2Gbit DDR3 SDRAM chips and an interface chip, interconnected using TSV technology. The firm claims that this is the first in the world to use TSV technology to implement 32-bit input/output. Compared to the conventional design made with wire bonding, a small-outline dual inline memory module (SO-DIMM), the new package offers major reductions in both dis-sipation and mounting footprint.

The Global Positioning System is based on American orbit-ing satellites circling the earth every 12 hours at an altitude of 20,200km. Receivers pick up the 1.5GHz-waveband micro-wave signals from multiple satellites, and measure the time it takes for each to arrive, using this time data to calculate precise distance and location.

GPS functions have become essentially standard in smart-phones, and a variety of services have launched to utilize position information, such as “foursquare” from Foursquare Labs of the US, and “Colony Seikatsu Plus” from Colopl of Japan. The prices of key components are dropping steadily, too. In about 2007 a single-chip implementation of a GPS baseband unit and RF unit cost 500 yen or more, but as of 2011 cost no more than 300 yen. One component manufac-turer commented they might well drop under 200 yen.

Components Components

DRAM GPS

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2G mobile phone

100‒200 MLCCs

Smartphone

400‒500 MLCCs

Netbook

300‒400 MLCCs

Tablet

500‒600 MLCCs

LCD TV

700‒800 MLCCs

3D TV

1000‒1100 MLCCs

Sharp Rise in Onboard MLCC QuantityIncrease in internal components keeping pace with rising functional-ity in electronic equipment.

Glossary

Ambient light sensors detect the presence and intensity of visible light, with performance covering the range from moonlight levels of 1 lux to sunny daylight levels of 10,000 lux. They are used in a variety of functions such as adjusting display brightness to a comfortable level, turning on room lights when it gets too dim for human eyes, and turning off unneeded lights when room brightness is adequate.

Formerly costly CdS cells were used, but the cadmium (Cd) content caused them to be banned in Europe when the RoHS directive took effect on July 1, 2006. Many nations, including Japan, followed suit and restricted use, and as a result today there are three main designs in use: silicon phototransistors, photodiodes, and photodiodes with amplification circuits.

In smartphones, ambient light sensors are mounted near the displays. The objectives are to improve display readabil-ity, reduce display power consumption as much as possible, and extend battery drive time for conversation, call waiting, or games or other applications.

In sites where the sensor detects bright light, such as at noon or indoors under bright lighting, the output intensity of the LCD panel backlight or OLED panel is maximized to im-prove readability. Outdoors at night or under other low-light conditions, display brightness is lowered to conserve energy.

Multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are chip-type ca-pacitors consisting of stacks of ceramic dielectrics and metal electrodes, combining smaller size with larger capacity. They are used to reduce noise and set circuit constants, and are found in almost all electronic equipment.

The primary applications are noise suppression and assist-ing power supply. The former function is possible thanks to the low impedance of the MLCC in high-frequency ranges. Concretely, high-frequency power supply noise generated in the IC is bypassed to the ground layer. This limits high-frequency power supply noise to the immediate IC region, preventing it from escaping into the board. The latter func-tion provides the missing charge when IC operation changes abruptly, resulting in a change in power supply voltage and causing the supply circuit voltage to be insufficient.

The quantity of MLCCs in electronic equipment has in-creased as functions become increasingly sophisticated.

Components Components

Ambient Light Sensors MLCC

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USB 3.0 Micro B PlugThe USB 3.0 Micro speci-fication connector has two receptacles in a line, the USB 2.0 Micro specification and the USB 3.0 compact. Photo shows prototype courtesy Hi-rose Electric.

Glossary

Li-ion rechargeable batteries use a lithium (Li) compound in the cathode. They were first volume-produced by Sony Energy Tech (now Sony Energy Devices) of Japan in 1991. The batteries are widely used in a wide range of applications including notebook PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, cam-corders and electric vehicles.

Li-ion rechargeable batteries in smartphones are generally between 1000mAh and 1500mAh, but there is strong de-mand to boost energy demand even higher.

High-capacity Li-ion rechargeable battery cathodes are 3-element Li (Ni-Mn-Co) O2, lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2

O4), or lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), while anodes are graphite. In most designs the electrode plates are stacked. They repeat the charge/discharge cycle by passing lithium ions between the cathode and anode through the electrolyte.

Development is under way to increase energy density, im-prove safety and lower cost. Sony, for example, announced a high-capacity design using tin in the anode, in July 2011.

The new cell is a so-called “18650” size measuring 18mm in diameter by 65mm in length, and the capacity is a high 3.5Ah. This is a 25% improvement over the 2.8Ah offered by the firm’s prior product, released in 2010. The volumetric energy density is 723Wh/L, and mass 53.5g, for a weight energy density of 226Wh/kg. The charging voltage is 4.3V. Shipment is scheduled to start before the end of 2011.

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a digital interface used to connect PCs and other hosts to peripheral equipment. Stan-dardization is handled by the USB Implementers Forum .

USB 1.0/1.1, the first version, appeared in Sept. 1998, and was tapped for use with mice and keyboards, eventually stealing away the roles formerly played by PS/2 and paral-lel ports. In April 2000 the high-speed USB 2.0 appeared, competing head-on with IEEE1394 (which was making rapid headway in the audio-visual equipment industry at the time) and driving it into a minor corner of the market.

USB leveraged its power supply functionality to penetrate mobile equipment applications. It defined the Mini and Micro connector specifications for compact mobile gear, quickly penetrating the digital camera, mobile phone and smartphone markets. Today it has become indispensible in PCs, mobile phones and more. The most recent version is USB 3.0, standardized in Nov. 2008. It features a peak data transfer rate of 5Gbit/s, more than 10 times the 480Mbit/s data rate of USB 2.0. It is already in use in a number of PCs and external hard drives. The Micro specification for mobile equipment places a USB 2.0 Micro receptacle next to a com-pact USB 3.0 receptacle, the two aligned horizontally.

USB 3.0 receptacle

USB 2.0 receptacle

Components Components

Li-Ion Rechargeable Batteries USB

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Type D Connector Offers Compactness on a Par with Micro USBThe newest HDMI 1.4 specification includes the new Type D con-nector, significantly smaller than prior connectors. It is about the size of the current Micro USB specification.

SIM Card AppearanceTo prevent it from be-ing removed or insert-ed while power is on, many mobile phones require the battery to be removed before the SIM card can be accessed.

Connector type *1 HDMI Micro USBType A Type C Type D

Height (receptacle) About 5.55mm *2 3.2mm 2.8mm 2.94mm

Width (receptacle) About 15mm *2 11.2mm 6.4mm 7.8mm

Pins 19 19 19 5

Pin pitch (width direction) 0.5mm 0.4mm 0.4mm *3 0.65mm

Pin rows 2 1 2 1

Insertion cycles Min. 10,000 Min. 5000 Min. 5000 Min. 10,000*1 Type B HDMI connector also defined *2 Based on HDMI specification *3 Pin pitch in height direction 0.6mm

Glossary

The HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) inter-face for consumer electronics pumps non-compressed high-definition video signal, audio signal, and an equipment con-trol signal called CEC (consumer electronic control) through a single cable. It uses the Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) technology developed by Silicon Image of the US, using three pairs of data lines for transfer. The first version of the specification, 1.0, was released in Dec. 2002.

The current version 1.4 adds five new functions: onboard automotive applications, compact connector specification to expand range of application fields, support for “4k x 2k” im-age formats and 3D video, enhanced network functionality, and expanded audio functions.

HDMI is being utilized in a growing variety of products, now including flatscreen TVs, PCs, smartphones, camcorders and digital cameras. In smartphones, the compact Type D connector defined in HDMI 1.4 is becoming more commonly used.

SIM cards are smart cards used to store the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), which is a number iden-tifying mobile telephone numbers. SIM cards are issued to subscribers by the mobile phone operator to allow use of subscriber services. A single SIM card can be inserted into multiple handsets to allow them to use the same telephone number.

The first use of SIM cards was in Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), a second-generation (2G) mobile te-lephony system. In Japan they were first used in 3G mobile telephones.

Current SIM cards are implemented as Universal Integrat-ed Circuit Cards (UICC), smart cards containing CPU, ROM, RAM, electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and input/output circuits, and are capable of storing mul-tiple applications internally. The SIM card function is imple-mented as an application on the UICC, which can also offer (for example) phonebook applications. Recently functions utilizing nearfield communication (NFC) are beginning to be implemented in SIM cards, including electronic transactions and public transportation tickets (see page 48).

Components Components

HDMI SIM Cards

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eGlossary

Wireless Telecommunication

GSM

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) is a third-generation (3G) mobile communications standard. The 3G standard proposal submitted to the ITU by Japan was W-CDMA, for which reason it is generally known by that name in Japan, but the rest of the world usually refers to it as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), or just 3G. W-CDMA is the successor to the GSM standard (see page 38) used globally, and has been adopted by many na-tions with GSM systems. It utilizes direct-spread (DS) CDMA with a maximum bandwidth of 5MHz.

The first version, Release 99, ran at 384kbit/s for both up-link and downlink, but the standard was gradually upgraded to handle faster packet data. Release 5 in March 2002 was the first to incorporate High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), boosting the downlink data rate to 14.4Mbit/s max. Release 9 in Dec. 2009 reached 84.4Mbit/s max. with HSPA+, utilizing multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) technolo-gy and two carriers with multiple antennas for multiplexing.

The uplink data rate was boosted to a peak of 5.76Mbit/s in Release 6 (Dec. 2004), with Enhanced Uplink (EUL). In Re-lease 9 the peak speed is scheduled to be raises to 23Mbit/s, using 16-level quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and two carriers.

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the second-generation (2G) mobile communication system stan-dardized in Europe. It was originally called “Group Special Mobile,” after the name of the standardization organization. GSM is used through almost the entire world, with the excep-tion of Japan and Korea, making worldwide roaming pos-sible. According to industry body GSMA, there were a total of 3,450,410,000 GSM-compliant handsets in use worldwide as of the second quarter of 2009.

One of the features of GSM is that SIM cards (see page 37) can be inserted and removed freely. The SIM card itself holds subscriber information, making it easier to exchange or re-place mobile phones.

GSM multiplexing is implemented with frequency division duplex time division multiple access (FDD-TDMA). The first version of GSM used Gaussian filtered minimum shift keying (GMSK) modulation, with a peak data transfer rate of only 14.4kbit/s for uplink (handset to base station) and downlink both. The standard has been upgraded since with improved speed and support for packet communication to handle need for higher throughput.

General packet radio service (GPRS) entered commercial service in Europe in 2000, combining eight slots to achieve a peak downlink data rate of 171.2kbit/s. In 2003, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), the successor to GPRS, was launched in the United States. The EDGE data rate used 8-phase shift keying (8-PSK) modulation, faster than GMSK, to push the downlink data rate to a peak of 473.6kbit/s.

W-CDMAWireless Telecommunication

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Mobile WiMAXWireless Telecommunication

Glossary

Wireless Telecommunication

CDMA2000

CDMA2000 is a third-generation (3G) mobile communica-tion system developed by Qualcomm. Commercial service is offered in the United States, Japan and Korea, but in very few European nations. Because of the low number of CDMA2000 users, W-CDMA commands a much stronger position in the market.

CDMA2000 pre-defines a group of 1.25MHz carriers, referring to implementations by the number of carriers used. A system using one 1.25MHz carrier wave would be CDMA2000 1x, and system with three would be CDMA2000 3x. Evolution Data only (1xEV-DO) defines the use of one carrier for datacom only. A series of standards has been de-veloped, including Rel. 0, Rev. A, MC-Rev. A and Broadcast/Multicast Services (BCMS).

Rel.0 uses quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) or 16-lev-el auadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation, with a peak downlink (base station to handset) data transfer rate of 2.46Mbit/s, and uplink 153.6kbit/s. Rev.A reduces the redundancy in the error correction coding to increase the downlink to 3.072Mbit/s peak, and switches from binary phase shift keying (BPSK) to 8-phase shift keying (8-PSK) modulation to raise the peak uplink data rate to 1.843Mbit/s. MC-Rev. A combines up to three Rev. A carriers, achieving a peak downlink data rate of 9Mbit/s and uplink of 5Mbit/s.

BCMS, as the name indicates, is a datacom system for broadcasting services. It uses the same communication method as Rel. 0, with a peak data rate of 2.4Mbit/s. There is no uplink.

Mobile WiMAX is a mobile communication standard compliant with IEEE802.16e. It makes use of a bandwidth from 5MHz to 20MHz to offer a peak data transfer rate of 75Mbit/s, with effective data rates of 10Mbit/s to 20Mbit/s, or on a par with Wireless LAN.

The standard uses time division duplex (TDD) to run uplink (handset to base station) and uplink on the same frequency. Both uplink and downlink use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), so there are multiple carrier waves in the communication bandwidth. It also makes use of multiple antennas and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) multiplexing.

Mobile WiMAX2, the successor to Mobile WiMAX based on IEEE802.16m, is already complete. Mobile WiMAX2 of-fers a peak downlink data rate of 330Mbit/s, and 112Mbit/s peak speed on the uplink.

Expanded bandwidth and multi-antenna technology pro-vided the increase in data transfer rate. Total bandwidth is made up of multiple blocks, each 20MHz wide. Two of these 20MHz blocks are used to achieve 330Mbit/s. Improvements in multi-antenna technology improved MIMO multiplexing from 2 to 4, while MIMO technology itself provides function-ality allowing multiple handsets to communicate simultane-ously with a single base station.

Under IEEE802.16e communication was stable at speeds of up to 120km/h, but the newer IEEE802.16m calls for stable communication at up to 100Mbit/s even at 350km/h.

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Fig. 1　LTE Datacom CardThe L-02C data com-munication card mar-keted by NTT DoCo-Mo when LTE service launched in Dec. 2010. Manufactured by LG Electronics.

Glossary

Wireless Telecommunication

LTE

LTE can use both frequency division duplex (FDD), where uplink and downlink are handled on different frequencies, and time division duplex (TDD), where they use the same fre-quency with time switching. 3G itself uses FDD technology, and LTE was originally intended for use only in FDD systems. As a result, the term LTE normally refers to FDD LTE imple-mentations.

TDD LTE was designed with China very much in mind. It is positioned as an advanced version of the Time Division - Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) used in China, and is often referred to as TD-LTE to minimize confusion with FDD LTE.

There is very little technical difference between FDD LTE and TD-LTE, including frame design and modulation scheme, and wireless communication semiconductor manufacturers have developed baseband processors to handle both. Equip-ment manufacturers can develop products with minimal con-cern for differences between FDD and TDD.

Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is an evolved version of W-CDMA, a third-generation mobile communication (3G) stan-dard. 3GPP, the W-CDMA standardization body, included LTE within its 3GPP Release.8 standard. The LTE standard is also referred to as E-UTRA (evolved universal terrestrial radio ac-cess) / E-UTRAN (evolved universal terrestrial radio access network) because of the way it is defined in Release.8. Com-munication services using LTE launched in the United States and Japan from the end of 2010 (Fig. 1).

The LTE standard was intended to boost the data transfer rate and minimize delay, achieving a peak downlink (base station to handset) data rate of 300Mbit/s and a peak uplink data rate of 75Mbit/s, using a 20MHz bandwidth. Downlink modulation is orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), and uplink uses single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA), which is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

LTE introduces the concept of categories, defining target peak data rates for each. The category with the lowest speed, Category 1, has a peak downlink data rate of 10Mbit/s, and a peak uplink data rate of 5Mbit/s (Table 1).

Table 1　LTE Categories (downlink data rate in bits/s)Bandwidth used 5MHz 10MHz 15MHz 20MHz

Category 1 10M 10M 10M 10M

Category 2 37.5M 50M 50M 50M

Category 3 37.5M 75M 100M 100M

Category 4 37.5M 75M 112.5M 150M

Category 5 75M 75M 225M 300M

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Major IEEE802.11 Series Standards

Standard Description

IEEE802.11 2.4GHz waveband, peak data rate 2Mbit/s

IEEE802.11a 5GHz waveband, peak data rate 54Mbit/s

IEEE802.11b 2.4GHz waveband, peak data rate 11 Mbit/s

IEEE802.11g 2.4GHz waveband, peak data rate 54Mbit/s

IEEE802.11i Highly secure standard. Standardized by the Wi-Fi Alliance as WPA/WPA2

IEEE802.11n 2.4GHz or 5GHz waveband, peak data rate 600Mbit/s

Glossary

Wireless Telecommunication

Wireless LAN

Other even faster communication standards are on the horizon: as of July 2011, the IEEE802.11ad standard is al-most complete, while IEEE802.11ac is still being worked on. 802.11ad will use the 60GHz waveband for a peak data rate of 7Gbit/s, while 802.11ac is planned to offer at least 1Gbit/s using the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wavebands.

Sharing Internet access via tethering function

Smartphones have appeared supporting IEEE802.11b/g or IEEE802.11b/g/n. The 802.11n implementation does not support MIMO, so that the data rate is about the same as that offered by 802.11g.

Recently, smartphones are offering a “Wireless LAN tether-ing” function. This makes it possible to use the smartphone as a Wireless LAN access point (base station), so that porta-ble game system, tablets and other terminals equipped with Wireless LAN functionality can connect to the Internet via mobile communication.

A wireless tethering function was made available to An-droid smartphones in May 2010, with the release of Android 2.2, while the iPhone supported it in iOS 4.3 released March 2011. In some cases, however, Wireless LAN tethering is dis-abled by the mobile phone operator.

Wireless LAN was originally a general term applied to wireless implementations of Ethernet-based networks, but today it usually refers specifically to the IEEE802.11 series of standards. The IEEE802.11 series is also called “Wi-Fi,” after the Wi-Fi Alliance industry group promoting multi-vendor interoperability and improved name recognition.

The IEEE802.11 series has two wavebands, one the 2.4GHz band and the other the 5GHz band. Standards in the 2.4GHz waveband are 802.11, with a peak data transfer rate of 2Mbit/s, 802.11b at 11Mbit/s and 802.11g at 54Mbit/s. IEEE802.11a uses the 5GHz waveband, with a peak data rate of 54Mbit/s.

IEEE802.11n can ut i l ize both wavebands . Using a maximum channel width of 40MHz (20MHz up through IEEE802.11g), and multiplexing up to four signals with 4x4 multi-input multi-output (MIMO) technology, it can reach a data transfer rate of 600Mbit/s.

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n e

Peak data rate (bit/s)100k10k 1M 10M 100M １G

Current consumption at peak output (mA)

1000

100

10

1

Max. current consumption (imposed by equipment)

Watch, wearable sensor, etc. driven by button battery

Smartphone, intermittent sensor net terminal

Notebook PC

Wireless headset or headphone

Watch, etc. driven by solar cells

Millimeter waves for uncompressed high-definition video transfer

Wireless LAN (IEEE802.11a/b/g/n)

Bluetooth

BLE/ANT

Positioning Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ANTCompared to conventional communication methods, speed is low but corresponding power consumption at peak output is extremely low.

Glossary

Short-Range Communication

Bluetooth Low Energy and ANT

of Feb. 2011, and has already gained a number of adoptions, primarily in speed sensors inside sports watches or running shoes.

The ANT protocol is based on a specific set of communica-tion network topologies and access control methods, and has no physical layer. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model covers from level 2 though parts of level 5. The maximum packet length for data send and receive is only a few tens of bytes, holding the effective peak data rate down to 20kbit/s.

Even so, the protocol stack software needed to implement ANT functionality is very small. According to the ANT+ Alli-ance, the protocol stack will fit neatly into about 2Kbytes of memory.

Bluetooth Low Energy (generally, Bluetooth LE) and ANT are both ultra-low power communication technologies capa-ble of being driven for about two years off button batteries. They are appropriate for applications such as small sensor equipment and remote controllers (Fig.).

Bluetooth LE is a new communication standard added to Bluetooth v4.0, which was issued in the summer of 2010. It is expected to begin showing up in smartphones at about the end of 2011.

Like the version of Bluetooth used to connect headsets and mobile phones it uses 2.4GHz, but it only operates in-termittently. Concretely, instead of maintaining the session continuously as in Bluetooth, it only connects every few ms or s, terminates the session as soon as communication is complete, and transitions to sleep mode to conserve power.

Bluetooth LE communication is implemented through two types of devices, a Bluetooth v4.0 device running conven-tional Bluetooth technology, and a Bluetooth LE device with only the low energy specification. Bluetooth v4.0 devices are intended for use in equipment with relatively high-capacity batteries, such as smartphones or PCs, while Bluetooth LE devices will probably be small sensors. In communication the Bluetooth v4.0 device is the host, sending commands to the Bluetooth LE device and collecting resulting information.

ANT, on the other hand, is a proprietary scheme created by Dynastream Innovations of Canada. The ANT+ Alliance promoting the specification had 385 corporate members as

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Encryption and other high-level middleware

Defined by Sony

Suica, Edy, Osaifu (e-money)

Examples of domestic adoption

International standards

Frequencies

Range

ISO18092

Defined by NXP

Electronic family registry,

employee ID, student ID

ISO14443 A（Type A）

Freely selectable

IC telephone cards, TASPO

cigarette ID card

ISO14443 B（Type B）

IC tags for distribution, retail

ISO15693

13.56MHz13.56MHz

10cm10cm

Configuration

Communication

FeliCa Mifare

NFC

NFC SpecificationsCommunication standards such as FeliCa, Mifare, ISO/IEC14443 Type B, and ISO/IEC15693 are defined for NFC.

Glossary

Short-Range Communication

NFC

to read the product information from an RFID tag on a prod-uct, or replenish the cash balance in a transportation fare card.

The peer-to-peer mode is used to swap data between two pieces of NFC-capable equipment. One application might be to exchange owner name card information or photos be-tween two mobile phones, for example.

At a minimum, a communication antenna and communica-tion control IC are needed to implement NFC functions in a smartphone. A “secure element” chip is also required, to hold the encryption and application processing circuits needed with the card emulation function. The secure element may be implemented by mounting it in the handset, or putting it in the SIM card. Some products mount the entire assembly from antenna to secure element in a micro SD card, which can be slotted into the handset to enable NFC capability.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless technology, good up to about 10cm, using the 13.56MHz waveband. The data transfer rate is 106kbit/s, 212kbit/s, 424kbit/s or 848kbit/s.

NFC was standardized in Dec. 2003 as ISO/IEC 18092 (dubbed “NFC IP-1”), by Sony and Philips Semiconductors (now NXP Semiconductors). NFC IP-1 is the heart of the Fe-liCa non-contact IC developed by Sony, and the communica-tion core of NXP’s Mifare. Applications are needed to handle e-money and other encryption processing, and the transac-tions themselves, but these are implemented independently. The Mifare communication core has been standardized as ISC/IEC 14443 Type A and is often just called “Type A” as a result.

In Jan. 2005 ISO/IEC 21481 was standardized, combining NFC IP-1 with the ISO/IEC 14443 Type B near field wireless technology operating in the 13.56MHz band, and the ISO/IEC 15693 standard for radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The new standard was called NFC IP-2.

NFC has three communication modes: the card emulation mode, the reader/writer emulation mode, and the peer-to-peer mode. In the card emulation mode, as the name sug-gests, it operates as a non-contact IC card in applications such as transportation fare cards or e-money cards.

In the reader/writer emulation mode it enables mobile phones or other equipment to operate as RFID tag or card reader/writers. For example, a mobile phone could be used

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eGlossary

Short-Range Communication

Wireless Power Supplies

Technology to transmit electric power by wireless, without power cords... By eliminating wiring and charging terminals, this technology makes it easier to design waterproof, dust-proof products and minimizes breakdown risk.

A variety of wireless power supply technologies are being researched now, depending on the specific principle of op-eration. In addition to the electromagnetic induction method chosen for NTT DoCoMo smartphones, there are also the magnetic resonance method, the electric field coupling method and the electric wave reception method. The electro-magnetic induction method is quite old, originally proposed by inventor Nikola Tesla at the start of the 20th century, and is already used in products such as electric toothbrushes and cordless phones. Magnetic resonance has attracted con-sidered attention following its announcement by a research team under Marin Soljacic of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2006. In this technology, magnetic field

resonance is utilized to transfer electricity over distances from tens of cm to several meters. Electric field coupling of-fers only a short range, but has the advantage that efficiency remains high even if transmitter and receiver plates are not perfectly aligned in the horizontal plane.

Electromagnetic induction has the clear lead in commer-cial use. The constituent technologies were developed de-cades ago and often overlooked, but now it is in the market development stage. Especially intriguing is the Qi standard drawn up by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), a group developing industry standards for non-contact charging. Since the establishment of the consortium in Dec. 2008 the number of corporate members has steadily grown, and in July 2010 it released its first standard, for systems with 5W max. output. Equipment with Qi standard compliance cer-tification can be used in any non-contact charging system, regardless of vendor.

Table 1　Major Wireless Power Supply TypesType Electromagnetic induction Magnetic resonance Electric field coupling Electric wave receptionDescription

Range Several mm to about 10cm Several cm to several m Several mm to several cm Tens of cm to several m (for household appliances)

Transferred power Several W to several kW Several W to several kW Several W to several hundred W 1W max.Electricity utilization efficiency

70% –90%(remainder mostly heat)

40% –60% (remainder heat (magnet-ic field) and electric waves (electric field))

60% –90% (remainder heat)

Very low (remainder electric waves)

Frequency 10kHz to several hundred kHz Several hundred kHz to tens of MHz Several hundred kHz to several MHz Medium-frequency waves to microwavesComp a n i e s i n t h e field

Many , inc lud ing Powerma t , Sanyo Electric, Seiko Epson, and Showa Aircraft Industry

Nagano Japan Radio, Qualcomm, Sony, WiTricity, etc.

Takenaka, Murata Mfg., etc. Intel, Nihon Dengyo Kosaku, Powercast, etc.

Electrode

Secondary coilPrimary coilMagnetic field

Electric wave

Rectifier

Magnetic flux

Secondary coil

Primary coil

Resonator

Electrode

Secondary coilPrimary coilMagnetic field

Electric wave

Rectifier

Magnetic flux

Secondary coil

Primary coil

Resonator

Electrode

Secondary coilPrimary coilMagnetic field

Electric wave

Rectifier

Magnetic flux

Secondary coil

Primary coil

Resonator

Electrode

Secondary coilPrimary coilMagnetic field

Electric wave

Rectifier

Magnetic flux

Secondary coil

Primary coil

Resonator

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eGlossary

Operating System Operating System

Windows Phone 7 is the smartphone operating system de-veloped by Microsoft and announced in Feb. 2010. The ker-nel is Windows Embedded Compact 7, originally developed for use in embedded applications. The application software development environment consists of Silverlight for Web-based applications, and Microsoft XNA for game develop-ment.

The key differences from Android are that the operating system is not free, and hardware requirements are much stiffer. Windows Phone 7 requires an electrostatic display panel with a minimum resolution of 800dots x 480dots and at least four press-sensitive points; A-GPS; sensors for accel-eration, ambient light, proximity and geomagnetism; a cam-era with at least 5 million pixels resolution; 256Mbyte RAM and 8Gbyte flash memory minimum; a DirectX 9-capable graphics processing unit (GPU); and a Qualcomm MSM7x30 or MSM8x55 CPU running at 800MHz or better.

Through Windows Mobile 6, the prior version, the operat-ing system was aimed at corporate users, but the target is now general users. The user interface has been changed to match, offering single finger-driven operation, and the Win-dows Marketplace for Mobile application market has been opened.

In Feb. 2011 Nokia announced that it would adopt Win-dows Phone 7 as the operating system for its entire line of smartphones.

Windows Phone 7

Android is the operating system for smartphones and oth-er equipment announced by Google in Nov. 2007. It incor-porates everything necessary for smartphone development, from the Linux kernel to middleware, a Web browser and the user interface. Originally it was only for smartphones, but today it is also used in tablets and even TVs.

One unique feature of Android is that the operating sys-tem is open sourse, which means that manufacturers work-ing on smartphones and other Internet-enabled equipment can complete development faster and cheaper than ever. As of July 15, 2011, the latest version of Android for smart-phones was 2.3, and 3.1 for tablets. The next version, to be released in the 4th quarter of 2011 and codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” will integrate the two.

Applications running on Android are basically developed in Java. These Java apps run in the Dalvik VM virtual ma-chine provided by Google.

The whole project started in Aug. 2005, when Google acquired tech start-up Android, a company developing soft-ware for mobile phones. Android was founded in Oct. 2003 by Andy Rubin, a co-founder of American handset manufac-turer Danger (acquired by Microsoft in 2008) and the man who is still in charge of Android business at Google.

Android

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N E H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1│ S m a r t P h o n eGlossary

Operating System Operating System

The term “application store” is used to signify online ser-vices selling and distributing applications for smartphones. The apps are developed by individuals and companies, and registered in application stores with price and description. Smartphone users can search for and obtain desired apps from the stores.

The system offers advantages for both developers and users. Apps can now be developed by anyone, regardless of company scale and including individuals, and sold world-wide. Users can compare a wide range of apps in the ap-plication store and easily obtain the one they like best. The advantages to both parties combine to increase the utility and attractiveness of the smartphone platform, contributing to rising smartphone sales.

Apple’s App Store led the way

The pioneer in application stores was the App Store, opened by Apple with the release of the iPhone 3G in July 2008. According to a July 2011 news release by Apple, App Store now lists over 425,000 apps, with over 15 billion apps downloaded to iPhones and other devices. A variety of appli-cation stores have been opened in its footsteps by operating system developers and Internet service providers, including Google’s Android Market, Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and Amazon.com’s Amazon Appstore for An-droid.

In fact, the same sort of application store existed for con-ventional mobile phones as well, but faced problems such as different software execution environments in different

Application Store

The iOS operating system from Apple was developed for use in embedded applications, and is used in the iPhone smartphone, iPod touch portable media player, and Apple TV set-top box. Unlike other smartphone operating systems such as Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, iOS is available only for Apple products, with no third-party licensing.

In reality, iOS is a version of Mac OS X, the operating sys-tem for Apple’s computers, customized for the needs of mo-bile gear. A program module has been added for the touch-panel user interface, while compatibility with older Mac OS versions and various UNIX functions have been deleted. In addition, while iOS is designed for use in the ARM archi-tecture, Mac OS X is designed to run on Intel-architecture microprocessors.

The iOS operating system has four layers. The bottommost is the Core OS, and the second layer provides critical Core Services for smartphone operation, such as call control and position acquisition. Layer 3 is Media, handling multimedia including audio and video, and layer 4 is Cocoa Touch, pro-viding the basic functionality required for application devel-opment, including the user interface.

Applications are primarily written in Apple’s own Objec-tive-C development language, and executed in native code under iOS. Developed applications are, in principle, only available through the App Store application store run by Apple.

iOS

NE Handbook Series 2011　Smartphone

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Operating System

handsets (which meant a smaller user pool for a given app), and complex contractual procedures with each car-rier to distribute apps. As a result, the idea never took off. The situation is different with smartphones because there are many terminals with the same execution environment, regardless of operator, and significant profit is possible. Development is also easier than it was, with significant im-provements in development tools and required information.

Store name App Store AndroidMarke

WindowsMarketplace for Mobile

AmazonAppstore forAndroid

Operator Apple Google Microsoft Amazon.com

Terminaloperatingsystem

iOS Android WindowsPhone

Amazon.com

Servicestart July2008 Oct.2008 Oct.2010 March2011

Developerregistrationfee

Standard:US$99/yearEnterprise:US$299/year

US$25 US$99/year

US$99/year

Incomesplit(developer:operator)

7：3 7：3 7：3 7：3

Appcertification Yes Yes Yes Yes

Supportedterminals iPhone, iPodTouch,iPad

Android WindowsPhone7

Android

Major Application Stores

Glossary