iPhone 5s Teardown: Shooting Holes in the Product

(with a 50 caliber bullet)
iPhone 5s Teardown: Shooting Holes in the Product - RF CafeSome people adopt quite literally the expression 'shooting holes' in a theory, argument, or claim. That is definitely the case for video blogger Richard Ryan, who takes aim at (another firearms expression) an iPhone 5s with his Barrett M82A1 50 caliber sniper rifle. I know from experience performing many teardowns of phones, wireless routers, Bluetooth devices, etc., that getting the cases open can be challenging - particularly if your goal is to preserve the integrity of the product - but Mr. Ryan's method does seem a bit extreme. His tactic is no more shocking than, say, dropping an iPhone 5 in a kitchen blender. The approach used by the folks at RCR Wireless, Design News, and Chipworks (most detailed), is a little more useful if you want more than just the cross-sectional view provided by the 50 caliber hole.

Inside the iPhone 5c (RCR Wireless report) - RF CafeNotable from an RF perspective is an RF Micro Devices RF3763 PA/Duplexer for B5, a Skyworks SKY77572 Band 18/19/20 PA, a Skyworks SKY77810 2G/EDGE PA, an Avago A792503 Band 25/3 PA, a Skyworks SKY77496 Band 13/17 PA, and a TriQuint TQF6414 Band 1/4 Dual PA. Wow, that is a lot of power amplifiers! So much for the dream of having a one-size-fits-all PA module. The transceiver is a Qualcomm WTR1605L  LTE / HSPA+ / CDMA2K / TDSCDMA / EDGE / GPS IC. You might as well not even look on the vendor websites for details on the devices because typically they are proprietary to customers like Apple, Nokia, Samsung, etc.

  Anyone (except me) can put a 50 cal hole through the face of an iPhone, but slicing it in half lengthwise

  is a remarkable bit of shooting!

Posted  September 26, 2013