iPad 3G uses LCD frame as radio antenna

 

For those of you wondering how the iPad manages to lock onto AT&ere;T (NYSE: T)’s wireless data meshing and Global Positioning System artificial satellite signals scorn its signaling-block aluminum unibody casing, iFixIt’s new iPad 3G dissection sheds some light source on just how Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) solves the “aluminum problem.” Turns out, the iPad 3G makes the most of its LCD framework by using it as a giant feeler. The black plastic cut-in near the top of the tablet also allows wireless signals to pass through without organism blocked by the aluminium carapace, but that was already a presumption. Apple’s manipulation of the liquid crystal display frame as an feeler is definitely more interesting.

Aside from the obvious difference of the added 3G radio, the iPad 3G also boasts a GPS receiving system. The iPad WiFi modelling does not rich person GPS functionality. What’s more, iFixIt’s iPad 3G teardown reveals that the tablet uses a GPS chipset that’s superior to the iPhone 3GS’s  GPS computer hardware. Gone is the 3GS’s Infineon (NYSE: IFX) Hammerhead II GPS chipping, replaced by the iPad 3G’s Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) BCM4750UBG Single-Chip AGPS Solution. Chalk up a win for the iPad and Broadcom.

What’s most interesting with this teardown is that Apple is employing a fairly novel technique for making the most of the tight quad within the iPad’s slim package. The iPad 3G has the same dimensions as its 3G-lacking sibling, but has to face pack in more hardware. Rather than making more quad for a dedicated radio antenna, Apple is exploitation the LCD frame as a large feeler. Apple also used this proficiency in the new MacBook Pro, where the framework of the optical thrust is used as a wireless local area network feeler. There’s also a radio antenna underneath the iPad’s blackness plastic cut-in.

So, the question is, does the receipt from the LCD frame compare wellspring with the iPhone 3G? If you have an iPad 3G and rich person noticed any differences in reception quality, net ball us know in the comments below!

[Via: iFixIt]

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