NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

High-End GSM/WCDMA/HSPDA/GPS dual-camera 5.0MP swivel flip phone, 1.5Gb of internal SDRAM memory, and 1Gb of NOR Flash (a bizarre design choice when compared with most new models). The NEC FOMA N905i also features a 3.0-Inch 480 x 854 pixels 262K Colors TFT primary display and 0.9-Inch OLED secondary display. Video/audio playback and media streaming is also a common feature of newer, and especially 3G+ phones such as this, and this phone also provides video recording in H.264 format at 30fps. It also supports "One-Segment Mobile TV terrestrial digital broadcast with the capability to record TV programs. The N905i is part of NEC's 905i Series phone which also includes SH, F, P, and D; each with unique features of its own.

The NEC FOMA N905i is one of the most high-performance camera-phones we have ever seen. In fact the emphasis on this phone seems to be more camera than phone. We were surprised to see that the supporting circuitry around the camera function (such as image stabilizer IC) is much more akin to recently analyzed digital still cameras than any other previously analyzed camera phone. This kind of device further blurs this distinction between cameras and phones.

NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone Main Image

This phone is intended by NEC to represent a High-End 3G Camera phone. This phone has a feature lists that would satisfy their target market of camera and video-centric consumers.

Released

NTT DoCoMo's announcement on November 1st, 2007 states the availability of the NEC N905i on or after November 26th, 2007.

NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

No pricing information for NEC N905i was found. Furthermore, the NEC N905i will only be available in Japan.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1,000,000 units over a production life of 2 years.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

We are assuming, for this analysis, that NEC is not a major player in the world market for handsets, and that they buy in relatively low volumes from higher-end Japanese vendors, and produces most of this device either in Japan or from Japanese manufactured sources. However, for the purposes of this analysis we have in some cases (core silicon, displays) shown where we think most of the market are buying, however it is possible that NEC are paying much more for some components and systems as a result of their design and purchasing strategies.

Main Material Cost Drivers

NEC - uPD77620 - Baseband / Application Processor - GSM/GPRS/EGPRS, WCDMA, HSDPA, ARM1176: 500MHz, DSP K701: 500MHz, 65nm, PoP - Qty(1)

Primary Camera Module - 5.2MP, 1/2.8' Format, Auto Focus Lens - Qty(1)

Display Module - 3.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT LCD, 480 x 854 pixels - Qty(1)

Samsung - K4V1H303PC-XGC6 - Mobile SDRAM - 1Gb (Estimate) - PoP - Qty(1)

Intel - MCP - 1Gb NOR Flash, 512Mb Mobile SDRAM (Estimate) - Qty(1)

Panasonic (Matsushita) - Chip Tuner Module - One-Seg DTV - Qty(1)

Ricoh - ABB / Power Management IC - Qty(1)

Renesas - Applications Processor - SH-Mobile - Qty(1)

NEC - Applications Processor - ARM Core - Qty(1)

Epson - S4E19863 - GPS Module - A-GPS, 160dBm - Qty(1)

Asahi Kasei - AK1533 - RF Transceiver - WCDMA 850USA/850JPN/1700MHz/2100MHz, Supports HSDPA - Qty(1)

NEC - AAN29226 - Battery - Li-Ion, 3.8V, 770mAh - Qty(1)

Secondary Camera Module - 0.3MP CMOS, 1/8' Format, Fixed Lens - Qty(1)

Display Module - 0.9' Diagonal, Organic EL 1 Color, 96 x 64 pixels - Qty(1)

PCB - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+4+2, Stacked Via - Qty(1)

Panasonic (Matsushita) - MN677391 - WMA (Windows Media Audio) Decoder - 64kbps-160kbps - Qty(1)

Total w/ Manufacturing $199.89

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

OEM/ODM/EMS Relationships / Manufacturing

Although, as part of iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", we track major OEM and ODM relationships, NEC represents such a small player on the global scale, we do not track their sales or manufacturing relationships.

It is assumed for the purposes of this analysis, that either NEC are building these in house, or with a Japan-based EMS provider.

NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Though we did not see reference in English to country of origin it is assumed the NEC N905i is made in Japan. Furthermore, though we typically would assume that most Asian manufacturers will work either with Chinese vendors or

OEM produce in China, our experience with Japanese manufacturers suggests that for high-end product, at least, they typically stick to local sources in Japan.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of 'finished' sub-assemblies (such as chargers), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. ""Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

As a result of this camera phones functionality, in addition to overall cost, the FOMA N905i is quite complex in all aspects, to manufacture because of not just the sheer component count, but also the need for precision, and tight tolerances.

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for China.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Design Notes

The NEC FOMA N905i features a lot of integrated circuits that were not, despite decapsulation and a detailed microscopic analysis, positively identifiable. Many of the core IC's are either custom ASICs or standard product for which no public information is available. So, in most cases, based on overall architecture, we had to assume the functionality of many of the major ICs. Even the memory components were shrouded in some mystery and we had to assume the content of these chips based on the high-end functionality of the phone.

This phone features a lot of silicon and is a reflection of the high degree of functionality in this phone, including exceptional things like a 3 inch diagonal primary display, A-GPS (discrete), RFID, and a TV tuner - but the phone also has a very significant applications processor, and an exotically large amount of NOR Flash (very unusual nowadays, with most designs more NAND-heavy and NOR-less). Overall the elevated costs of this phone are a reflection of the large amount of features, and the discrete and redundant design (multiple apps processors, multiple MCPs with memory as secondary dies) increases, therefore, silicon content.

Here are the major components found in the NEC FOMA N905i design:

Main PCB

Baseband - Memory

NEC - uPD77620 - Baseband / Application Processor - GSM/GPRS/EGPRS, WCDMA, HSDPA, ARM1176: 500MHz, DSP K701: 500MHz, 65nm, PoP

Samsung - K4V1H303PC-XGC6 - Mobile SDRAM - 1Gb (Estimate) - PoP

MPU

Renesas - Applications Processor - SH-Mobile (MCP w/ 128Mb SDRAM from Elpida)

RF Transceiver - Power Amplifier

RF Xcvr - Asahi Kasei - AK1533 - WCDMA 850USA/850JPN/1700MHz/2100MHz, Supports HSDPA

RF Xcvr - Renesas - R2A60167BG (B6-PLD) - Quad-Band, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 0.25um RF BiCMOS

PAM (GSM) - Renesas - RPF09036B - Quad-Band, GSM/GPRS/EDGE

PAM (WCDMA) - Multiple discrete single-frequency PAMs (manufacturer unknown)

User Interface

NEC - Applications Processor - ARM Core (MCP w/ 128Mb SDRAM from Elpida)

TV Tuner module - Based on NEC TV DSP and TV Tuner / decoder chip (source unknown)

Panasonic (Matsushita) - MN677391 - WMA (Windows Media Audio) Decoder - 64kbps-160kbps

Yamaha - YMU804-PZ - Codec - Audio, w/ Built-In Programmable DSP

Display Area PCB

GPS - Epson - S4E19863 - GPS Module - A-GPS, 160dBm

Camera Modules

Primary - 5.2MP, 1/2.8' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Secondary - 0.3MP CMOS, 1/8' Format, Fixed Lens

Display Modules

Primary Display - 3.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT LCD, 480 x 854 pixels

Secondary Display - 0.9' Diagonal, Organic EL 1 Color, 96 x 64 pixels

NEC FOMA N905i Mobile Phone - Enclosure Disassembly