The battery life of Apple's electronics was once criticized, and the giant has been taking steps to improve the battery level of the company's electronics. According to reports, on the iPhone 14 series of phones that are expected to be released in September this year, Apple has also taken measures to improve the battery life of the iPhone 14 phone, and the measures will not only increase the capacity of the battery.
In fact, with the advent of the 5G era, the network data transmission speed of electronic products has been greatly improved, but this also has a certain price, that is, it will bring a certain degree of decline to the battery life of electronic products. According to supply chain reports, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company will switch to 5G radio frequency (RF) chips from Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC on the iPhone 14 in hopes of extending the battery life of the iPhone 14 phone.
Figure| chip maker TSMC (Source: TSMC)
It is reported that Apple has ordered TSMC's 5G RF chips for the full number of iPhone 14, and this move is likely to not only improve battery life, but also improve battery efficiency. In addition, TSMC's new production process will also make physically smaller chips possible without compromising performance, functionality and battery life, and the reduction in the size of 5G RF chips will also mean that more additional space can be freed up for batteries to further increase battery capacity.
Prior to this, the 5G chips of Apple's iPhone were provided by Samsung. This will also mean a big change in the supply chain of iPhones. However, as a matter of past experience, TSMC usually does not comment on individual customer orders.
According to reports and market analysts' forecasts, the Apple mobile phone 5G radio frequency (RF) chip provided by TSMC will be produced using TSMC's 6nm RF process launched in June 2021, the full name of which is N6RF. And Apple is likely to be the biggest buyer of this 5G chip.
According to the official website of TSMC, the high performance and high data speed brought by 5G require higher RF power consumption and larger RF silicon area to support, and these two factors will adversely affect the battery and further affect the user experience of smartphones. TSMC's N6RF RF process is designed to solve this problem. "The N6RF process is the most advanced RF CMOS technology available today, leveraging advanced RF capabilities and digital PPA benefits to deliver full 5G/Wi-Fi 6 and 6E performance to users while maximizing battery life."
Figure | chip concept diagram (Source: TSMC)
The Wi-Fi 6E standard mentioned above is a new standard that is becoming increasingly popular in the industry, and the existing iPhone models only support the Wi-Fi 6 standard. In fact, the 5G RF chip in the iPhone is not only used to handle cellular data connections, but also usually assumes the support function of the multifunctional components of Wi-Fi connections.
Therefore, it can be expected that the iPhone 14 with the new 5G chip will most likely support the Wi-Fi 6E standard as well. This will mean doubling the Wi-Fi antennas, which will greatly increase the bandwidth and download speeds of Wi-Fi.
TSMC also evaluated the N6RF process based on transceiver (TRx) applications. The results of the review show that this new 6nm chip production process will result in at least a 33% overall size reduction and a power efficiency improvement of at least 66%.
In addition, TSMC said that the new N6RF production process will also bring greater flexibility between the 5G RF transceiver (5G RF TRx) and the 5G cellular modem for further system optimization. These will enable products to achieve better 5G, Wi-Fi 6/6E, and true wireless stereo (TWS) performance while achieving optimal battery life, resulting in a better user experience.
TSMC is also currently supplying chips for Apple's Mac series of computers. There have been other reports that the new iPhone will use TSMC's 4nm process to produce chips; there is also news that some iPads in 2023 will use TSMC's 3nm process to produce chips.
It is reported that Apple's new series of mobile phones have entered the trial production stage. This means that Apple has most likely completed the design of the iPhone 14 and is getting closer to mass production.
As Apple's launch gets closer, so do predictions and reports about the iPhone 14.
Since the iPhone 13 Pro launched last year has a maximum storage space of 1TB, some people predict that the storage space of the iPhone 14 series may be as high as 2TB. There is also news that Apple plans to increase the RAM of the iPhone 14 Pro from 6GB to 8GB.
There are also signs that the Pro model of Apple's new phone will include a 48MP camera, which will be a huge leap over the current 12MP camera.
But for Apple fans, to see if Apple really designed the iPhone 14 as these reports say, they'll have to wait a few more months until Apple actually unveils the iPhone 14.
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reference:
https://www.econotimes.com/iPhone-14-specs-Apple-orders-all-5G-chips-from-TSMC-that-could-deliver-improved-battery-performance-report-says-1627733
https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/22/apples-iphone-14-5g-modem-order-likely-to-be-completely-fulfilled-by-tsmc
https://rf.tsmc.com/schinese/dedicatedFoundry/technology/N6RF.htm