Korean publication ETNews claims that Apple plans on applying individual Electromagnetic Interference shields to a number of key components on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to reduce electromagnetic interference. board in the past, and a few individual chips have included their own shielding, but the iPhone 7 will apparently include a broader array of single-chip EMI shields, from radio frequency to wireless LAN and Bluetooth chips.
Other benefits of EMI shielding include more densely packed circuit boards, leaving extra space for the battery. On the downside, the process of applying EMI shielding will slightly raise the cost of chips’ production.
Apple has apparently been working on this project since the last year and has personally chosen the equipments that its partners will use for this process. For now, the company has given the EMI shielding contract to StatsChipPac and Amkor, with each contract being worth tens of millions of dollars.
According to the report, Apple decided to use the EMI shielding technology due to its effectiveness in preventing interference in wireless communication. Individual EMI shields can also allow for “more elaborate” and more densely packed circuit boards allowing for smaller devices or larger batteries. Similar EMI shielding was applied to the S1 chip package used in the Apple Watch last year
Source: ETNews via PatentlyApple
iPhone 7 may include a single-chip EMI shields