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Inside Apple’s Antenna Design Lab

Inside Apple’s Antenna Design Lab

After a press conference Friday addressing the iPhone 4’s antenna,
Apple gave journalists a private tour of its radio-frequency test
facility to provide a glimpse into the process of designing wireless
products such as iPhones and iPads.

Led by Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert at
Apple, the tour gave about 10 reporters and bloggers a peek at Apple’s
custom-built wireless testing lab, which consists of several anechoic
chambers to measure frequency of each device in various settings.

The tour was held after a press conference, in which Steve Jobs
attempted to mitigate a media thunderstorm surrounding the iPhone 4’s
purportedly flawed antenna by offering free cases to customers.
During the conference, Jobs reinforced his original position that every
phone has reception issues when held in certain ways, and he said a
flawed software algorithm was making the iPhone 4’s attenuation look
worse than it actually was.

Apple called the lab a “black” lab because it was a secret facility
that even some employees were unaware of. The company made the lab’s
existence public to show that Apple takes antenna design and
wireless testing seriously.

“This is the most advanced lab for doing RF studies that anyone in
the world has,” said Phil Schiller, vice president of marketing at
Apple. “The designs we do wouldn’t be possible without it.”

Each test chamber is lined with blue pyramid-shaped styrofoam
designed to absorb radio-frequency radiation. A robotic arm holding
gadgets such as iPads and iPhones spins 360 degrees while a piece of
analytics software (ironically running on Windows XP) visualizes the
wireless activity of each device. Caballero said each gadget is run
through a chamber for at least 24 hours.

In another test process Apple also has people sitting inside test
chambers, holding a device for about 30 minutes while software analyzes
its wireless performance to evaluate its interactions with the human
body. Synthetic heads, hands and even feet (think Nike +) are used for
some of these tests as well.

Apple’s testing lab looks similar to Celecom’s
cellphone radiation testing lab that Wired.com visited last year.
Manufacturers who create wireless products must gain certification from
an independent lab, which verifies that each device meets acceptable
radiation standards set by the Federal Communications Commission.

The difference with Apple is it built its own lab for the sake of
having full, granular oversight on the design (and redesign) of its
products. Prototypes go through several iterations and tests before
they’re finalized into Apple products. (Of course, having its own lab
also helps Apple better guard its secrets.)

Before the iPhone 4 became an official product, prototypes of the
device were tested in chambers for about two years until Apple settled
on a design, Caballero said.

“It’s not trivial to design antennas,” said Caballero, reminiscing on
the days older antennas had a single frequency.

After “passive” testing of devices inside isolated chambers,
eventually Apple engineers drive around a large van containing synthetic
hands gripping gadgets, with a laptop in the back running wireless
analytics software to determine how the devices perform in real-world
settings. Sometimes humans sit in the car seats holding the devices,
too. During the tour, Apple showed a van containing a table full of
synthetic hands gripping iPhone 4 devices.

“To do the most challenging design in the world, this is what we have
to do,” said Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Macintosh
hardware. “This is hardcore stuff.”

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