Smartphones are the most commony used computing devices. They exhibit powerful hardware

capabilities and complex operating systems, allowing advanced features and AI applications,

internet and cloud access, image and video acquisition, gaming, and core phone functions such as

voice calls and SMS. To perform such a variety of applications, smartphones must include many

devices, including a large set of sensors ( MEMS and Imaging) and devices to support several

wireless communications protocols like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB, NFC, 4G/5G.

STMicroelectronics is a leading semiconductor supplier in the mobile industry whitch provides

solutions for both mobile platform suppliers and mobile device manufacturers (OEM/ODM), with

focus on specific high-volume applications.

SMARTPHONE PLATFORM

The technologies in all modern smartphones enable many applications and can be quite complex in terms of system design.

The hearth of this platform is the application processor (AP) which ST does not supply but offers many devices to cover most

of the remaining system.

To better represent the smartphone platform, we can divide it into subsystems (main functional domains, as illustrated below),

so we can analyze each subsystem separately. Besides the AP, a modern smartphone can be represented by the following set

of functional blocks domains: Display domain, UI domain, Power domain, Audio domain, Connectivity domain, RF domain,

Memory domain, and cameras domain.

Processor Unit

UI & Sensors

Power

Management

Audio

Wireless

Connectivity

RF Module

SIM/Memory

Display/

Touchscreen

Back Camera

Front Camera

Face ID

4

Introduction