US version of iPhone 12 comes with 5G mmWave antenna
Board supplied by LG InnoTek
Apple’s iPhone 12 for the US market is shown to have a 5G mmWave antenna on its sides.
The US versions has a mmWave antenna window below the power buttons __ the feature is absent in models sold in other countries.
Apple has said at the unveiling event for the iPhone 12 that it has custom designed the 5G antenna and RF front-end on the phone.
The antenna module board is supplied by LG InnoTek.
The South Korean component maker announced in July that it was planning to spend 127.4 billion won to expand its telecom semiconductor substrate production line at Gumi. The expansion will last until June, 2021.
LG InnoTek’s substrates are supplied to Qualcomm, which in turn uses it to make the mmWave antenna module and supplies them to Apple.
The RFIC of the antenna module is likely Qualcomm’s, a person familiar with the matter said.
MmWave modules usually have more antenna than their 4G LTE counterparts. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra had three mmWave antenna modules __ two on the sides and one at the top. They were all Qualcomm-made modules. Samsung used the US chip giant’s application processor, 5G modem and RF front-end for the S20 Ultra.
28GHz mmWave is currently only serviced by Verizon in the US in limited areas.