Apple AirTag 2 Teardown Reveals Bigger Speaker, Improve Bluetooth Chip

Picture credit score: Electron Replace
Apple launched the second-generation AirTag simply final week, and along with the traditional adjustments, it has a a lot louder alert sound, a considerably longer Bluetooth vary, and noticeably extra correct place monitoring. Electronupdate examined considered one of these second-generation variations and confirmed that Apple just about delivered on that promise, but additionally raises the curtain on how they managed to do it with out altering the look on the outside.

The outside is similar to its predecessor, however the {hardware} tells a distinct story. First, pry the rear cowl open, rotate it round, and also you’ll see a easy CR2032 coin cell that rests beneath. The layers stay the identical: a battery holder, printed circuit board, speaker meeting, NFC antenna, and UWB antenna ring, all neatly stacked.

The speaker has been upgraded barely, largely to offer the louder chime Apple desired. It has a stronger magnet within the middle, which is then wrapped in a copper voice coil, tying your entire factor collectively. They’ve additionally devised a easy ingenious approach for getting excellent sound: the case itself serves because the diaphragm, vibrating to supply the music. That produces a sound that travels considerably additional than the earlier mannequin and cuts by means of background noise rather more successfully. Apple has taken efforts to place the speaker out of the way in which, so you may’t casually pull it out and switch off anti-stalking notifications. Nonetheless, folks at all times appear to handle. With time and a few fundamental instruments, you may disable it simply as straightforward because the preliminary AirTag mannequin.

Bluetooth connectivity has shifted to a brand new Nordic Semiconductor chip, the nRF 52840 mannequin, which is an enhanced model with larger flash reminiscence and RAM, in addition to improved radio efficiency on low power frequencies. Trying down on the chip, you may see the standard radio blocks: voltage managed oscillator, impartial mixers for receiving and broadcasting, and a balun to match the antenna, amongst others. The digital bits are all hidden beneath the metallic layers, which is a standard method within the trade for shielding essential circuitry from the surface world.

Apple’s U2 ultra-wideband processor, which has been in use for a while, relies on precision discovering. It’s a posh part that should measure the time of flight of indicators in an effort to get a fairly correct image of the place objects are. Within the flesh, it has quite a lot of arrays tuned throughout frequencies, in addition to inductors and transformers, and bond pads to tie the whole lot collectively. The board additionally has two tiny antennas to assist it alongside. The drawback proper now’s that you just want a reasonably new iPhone to get probably the most out of the processor.

Different elements embrace a Bosch three-axis MEMS accelerometer chip. If you look down at it, you’ll discover interdigitated comb constructions that transfer anytime there’s motion, and it could actually detect all of this by means of capacitance adjustments. There may be additionally a bit SPI flash reminiscence chip that shops the firmware for the system, and that chip presumably has 64 megabits of reminiscence, so the entire vital data is crammed right into a small space.
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