Teardown: Inside the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone

Allan Yogasingam

6/14/2012 2:43 AM EDT

See the technology inside the Galaxy S3, a member of Samsung's flagship family of Android smartphones. The story of Samsung in the smartphone landscape is an intriguing one. No more than three years ago, Samsung was considered a minor player in the handset industry, lagging in sales and stature behind companies such as Nokia, Motorola and Research in Motion. When Apple entered the fray with the introduction of the iPhone, eventually taking over as the leader in smartphone sales, many industry insiders felt that Samsung would never be able to make up the ground to be considered influential to the market.

Samsung itself understood the uphill climb that it was facing. Instead of waving the white flag and exiting the market, Samsung chose to jettison its approach to design and immediately ceased being complacent with its R&D model. Samsung re-invested heavily into creating a new line of handsets that were not only aesthetically-pleasing, but would feature higher-end technology and features not found in their competition.

The result of this new approach yielded the Galaxy line of handsets. These Android-based smartphones resonated with consumers, especially the first flagship handset, the Samsung Galaxy S, which was released in 2010. With sales approaching 24 million units, it was the beginning of Samsung 's dominance of the smartphone market. By the end of 2011, according to Gartner Inc., Samsung was now the undisputed global leader in handset unit sales, representing 40 percent of all Android smartphone sales alone.

According to Information Week, a UBM partner, unit sales of just the Galaxy line of smartphones by Samsung have totaled close to 60 million units, the bulk of which is the Samsung Galaxy S (24 million), the Galaxy S2 (28 million), and the recently released smartphone/tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note (7 million).

It should come as no surprise then that Samsung 's latest high-end Galaxy phone, the Galaxy S3, has drawn the interest of consumers, designers, engineers and market analysts. What would Samsung have up its sleeve for its newest smartphone?

UBM TechInsights purchased the first set of Samsung Galaxy S3 handsets from Europe. This is important as we were to later find out that the North American versions of the S3 would not feature a quad-core processor but a dual-core processor instead. At this time, the explanation given by Samsung is that this decision "optimizes" the Galaxy S3 for peak performance on America 's 4G and LTE networks.

Package photo of the Exynos Quad. The device features four ARM A9 cores as well as four Mali 400 GPU cores.

Samsung keeping it in the family
On the European version of the Galaxy S3, Samsung utilizes its proprietary Exynos brand of processors. In this case, Samsung selected the quad-core Exynos 4212 (which was at one point named the Exynos 4412 and then finally renamed the Exynos Quad). According to Samsung, this processor was manufactured at the 32-nm node, similar to that of the latest version of the Apple A5 processor found in the 3rd generation Apple TV or 2nd generation iPad 2. This new Exynos processor uses power gating across all four cores, which apparently reduces power consumption when not in use.

This isn't the first case that Samsung has taken a different path in the implementation of Exynos processors. The Samsung Galaxy S2 was initially released using the Exynos 4210 dual-core processor, but later variations of the same handset saw the Exynos replaced with Texas Instrument's OMAP4430 or, in the case of T-Mobile 's version, Qualcomm 's APQ8060 dual-core processor.

The Samsung Exynos Quad was found within a Package-on-Package (PoP) arrangement. Its secondary package was that of a Samsung K3PE7E700M 1GB Low-Power DDR2 DRAM. Labeled “Green Memory” on the package, the “green” refers to the low power consumption of the memory and not the manufacturing process. A de-encapsulation of this device reveals that it was manufactured at the 32nm node which was the same in use for LP DDR2 DRAM in the Galaxy S2. Samsung also utilizes a KMVTU000LM multi-chip memory package. This package consists of 16Gb of mobile flash and 64Gb of Mobile DRAM with a eMMC controller. Samsung also turns to their own semiconductor business to provide the image processor in the S3. Samsung 's S5C73M3X01 has not been seen in other Galaxy devices, making this the first time we 've seen this backside illumination (BSI) processor. Samsung also selects their 1.9 MP image sensor, the S5K6A3YX14, in combination with an 8 MP CMOS image sensor from Sony to provide the camera functionality.

Broadcom is also a major design winner in the new Galaxy S3. Deep within a Murata wireless module lies the Broadcom BCM4334, an apparent 40nm device is the follow-up to the BCM4330 that had found its way into the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Apple iPhone 4S. This new component from Broadcom is a architecturally refined version of the BCM4330 that improves on the power consumption; a necessity with respect to the more power-hungry 4G and LTE radios.

Intel takes advantage of their recently-purchased Infineon portfolio with a design win in the form of the X-GOLD 626 PMB9811 baseband processor. The PMB9811 was also found in the Samsung Galaxy S2, the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus confirming that this baseband processor has the faith of Samsung 's design engineers. Intel also leverages Infineon to provide the PMB5712 GSM/CDMA RF transceiver.

Other major design wins include Maxim, who continued to provide devices to the Galaxy family of phones. In this situation, Samsung incorporates Maxim 's MAX77686 and MAX77693 as power management devices within the Galaxy S3. As mentioned earlier, Maxim has a long history of working with Samsung, previously providing similar power management ICs for the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus, just to name a few.

Skyworks is again a major socket winner in a major handset. With four devices, ranging from a power amplifier module to antennae switches and even an LED driver, Skyworks continues their run of being found in high profile mobile computing products. This year has already seen Skyworks win sockets in the iPhone 4S, the iPad 3 and the Galaxy Note.
STMicro provides some of the key sensors in the Galaxy S3, providing the LSM330DLC package consisting of the accelerometer and gyroscope, and the LPS331AP MEMS pressure sensor. Rounding out the major wins is Cypress Semiconductor, whose CY8C20236A PSoC CapSense controller controls the keys. NFC capability is provided by NXP Semiconductor.

With over 9 million units pre-ordered before its release date, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was Samsung 's most anticipated handset to date. Judging by the effort placed on the selection of components and its sleek and nimble design, fans who pre-ordered should not be disappointed.

Other Samsung Galaxy S3 Key Components

Skyworks SKY77604-31 - Quad-band GSM/W-CDMA Power Amplifier Module
Samsung KMVTU000LM Multichip package – eMMC (16GB) + MDDR (64MB)
Maxim MAX77686 – Power management
Maxim MAX77693 – Power management
Unmarked 330DC – STMicroelectronics LSM330DLC 3D Accelerometer & 3D Gyroscope
Murata KM2323011 – Wireless module
Broadcom BCM47511 – Integrated Monolithic GNSS Receiver (found in the Galaxy Note)
Skyworks SKY77604-31 - Quad-band GSM/W-CDMA Power Amplifier Module (found in the Galaxy Note)
Silicon Image Si9244B0 – Mobile HD Link Transmitter (found in Galaxy Nexus)

The Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 survey teardown is available for purchase here. Also, you can check out older teardowns related to the Samsung Galaxy here.

Allan Yogasingam is a technical research manager at UBM TechInsights, a sister company to EE TImes.