Chinese handset tear down reveals IC-supplier trends

The A150 is part of Ningbo Bird's luxury series. It's a GSM-band flip phone with an integrated antenna, 65,000-color screen, and 0.3-Mpixel CMOS camera. The camera can also function as a 55-second movie camera.

From a system level, it is interesting to note the number of different component makers used in this handset. There are 11 major chips contained within the A150, with two of them having multiple die in the same package, resulting in a fairly average major component count of 14. However, the major components come from nine different companies (see the table). This compares to the six vendors that supply a typical Nokia phone (such as the 6630), which also has 14 major chips.

Ningbo Bird, TCL, and Amoi all use a wide variety of component vendors. This indicates that no single vendor is entrenched across multiple Chinese handsets, as we often see in North America.

Another difference is found when looking at the integration from major component vendors. Texas Instruments, Samsung, and Intel combined account for over 23% of the total design wins in North American, European, and Japanese handsets analyzed by Semiconductor Insights. By comparison, these same players have relatively few designs in Chinese handsets, realizing slightly over 7% combined. Philips, on the other hand, a component vendor with just under 2% design traction in the North American, European, and Japanese handset markets, shows significant designs into Chinese handsets, accounting for over 23% of the total ICs in the analyzed Chinese handsets.

Where the Ningo Bird significantly strays from other designs analyzed is on the digital side. The most common vendors of digital components in handsets, including ASICs, baseband, DSPs, and others, are Samsung, Qualcomm, and TI. In the Ningbo Bird A150, Epson provides the graphics processor, while Infineon provides the baseband processor. Semiconductor Insights has yet to see another handset with an Epson graphics processor and only Siemens handsets have been found to contain Infineon baseband processors.

Dialog interface ICs, also found in LG handsets, provide longer reach and higher data integrity. These interface ICs are a collection of standard functional blocks that connect logic level signals to the various voltage and current requirements of transmission lines, buses, and power.

It's often difficult to determine the image-sensor manufacturer due to few identifying markings. Hynix, the sensor provider for the A150, is one of the popular sensor makers and can also be found in various Samsung handsets. Note that Micron has an image sensor design win in an Amoi handset.

Yamaha, with its stereo synthesizer, is one of the few companies prevalent in many handsets around the world, having design traction within NEC and Samsung. And the same part is used in Sharp and Sony Ericsson handsets.

Skyworks and RFMD continue to battle for the power amplifier (PA) market. Outside of China, Skyworks takes about 40% market share with RFMD receiving 21%. In the Chinese market both Skyworks and RFMD account for 21% each. Philips, however, which makes up only 4% of the PA designs in the non-Chinese handsets, has an alarming 48% traction in Chinese models. This is mostly due to the seven-die multi-chip packaged BGY282T dual-band amplifier module for the GSM band found in a number of Chinese handsets.

In summary, there are three key differences found between the Chinese handsets and those of North America, Europe, and Japan. First, the number of different component vendors used in Chinese handset designs is greater. Second, larger vendors, such as TI, Intel, and Samsung, have fewer design wins in China, while Philips has great traction. Finally, no single company seems to have secured the supply chain across the different Chinese OEMs, leaving the market place open to all.

About the author
Gregory A. Quirk is a systems analyst for Semiconductor Insights. He can be reached at gregoryq@semiconductor.com.

This article shows the Ningbo BIRD A150, excerpted from Semiconductor Insights' Chinese Handset Special Edition Report, and uses trending information from the company's Handset Design Win subscription service.