TechInsights Teardown: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Samsung is one of the largest smartphone vendors in the world with a portfolio that is consistently updated a few times a year.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was released earlier this year and it comes with a wide range of cameras including a 200-megapixel wide-angle rear camera. It also comes with an S-Pen that allows users to control the camera with a pen instead of using fingers on the touchscreen.

The smartphone comes, naturally, with numerous electronic components from Samsung such as mobile SDRAM and flash memory but also a host of other smaller peripheral semiconductors. The handset is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G chipset with other Qualcomm components for the 5G transceivers.

The following is a partial deep dive into the S23 Ultra conducted by TechInsights.

Summary

• 6.8 inch AMOLED
• 8 GB mobile SDRAM
• 12 MP wide-angle front camera
• 200 MP wide-angle rear camera
• 10 MP telephoto rear camera
• 10 MP periscope telephoto rear camera

Released: February 2023

Price: $1,200

Availability: Worldwide

Target market: Consumer/communication

The main board of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra includes the main components that help the phone operate with the cellular connection, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more. Source: TechInsights

Main board

The main board includes the heart of the phone with the main applications processor from Qualcomm with an octa-core Snapdragon 8 generation and 8 GB mobile LPDDR5X SDRAM multi-chip memory from Samsung. Other electronic components include:

• 256 GB 3D TLC V-NAND flash and camera power management from Samsung
• NFC and secure element chip, SIM card interface and battery charger from NXP Semiconductors
• Qualcomm 5G RF transceiver and power management IC
• Power management IC from Analog Devices
• Class-D audio amplifier from Cirrus Logic
• Overvoltage protection from ETEK
• OVP load switch from Kinetic Technologies.
• 32-bit ARM Cotex-M0 microcontroller from ST Microelectronics

(Learn more about microcontrollers at Globalspec.com)

The auxiliary board of the Samsung S23 Ultra includes sensors used for operation of the phone’s features. Source: TechInsights

Auxiliary board

This board includes electronic components including sensors for the operation of the phone’s peripheral functions. These components include capacitive proximity controller from IMAGIS, a hall effect sensor from Diodes and a MEMS microphone from Knowles.

(Learn more about sensors at Globalspec.com)

The pen control board is the electronic components used to operate the peripheral with the smartphone. Source: TechInsights

S-Pen board

The S-Pen board contains the components needed to operate the peripheral with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Specifically, this includes:

• ST Microelectronics’ 6-axis MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope and ESD protection
  Silicon Mitus’ power management IC
• Dialog Semiconductor’s Bluetooth 5.1 SoC
• Puya Semiconductor’s 512 KB serial flash memory

(Learn more about MEMS chips at Globalspec.com)

Some of the major components found inside the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Source: TechInsights

Major components

• $138.32 — Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 applications/baseband processor — Qualcomm (Qty: 1)
• $60.33 — 200 MP wide-angle rear camera subsystem — Semco (Qty: 1)
• $59.51 — 120 Hz display/touchscreen subsystem — Samsung (Qty: 1)
• $24.23 — 10 MP periscope telephoto rear camera subsystem — Sony (Qty: 1)
• $23.11 — 5G mmWave 1 subsystem — Qualcomm (Qty: 1)
• $23.11 — 5G mmWave 1 subsystem — Qualcomm (Qty: 1)
• $20.34 — Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor subsystem (Qty: 1)
• $19.46 — 12 MP ultra-wide angel rear camera subsystem (Qty: 1)
• $19.07 — Multichip memory — 256 GB 3D TLC V-NAND flash — Samsung (Qty: 1)
• $18.90 — Main enclosure (Qty: 1)