In a move which it claims will redefine the single chip Bluetooth Smart market, Nordic Semiconductor has launched the nRF52832, said to be the first in a series of ultra low power multiprotocol radio SoCs. Amongst the target applications for the part are IoT edge nodes and wearable devices.
"Current single chip Bluetooth Smart solutions are struggling to keep up with the rate of innovation in Bluetooth Smart, particularly in applications such as wearables and IoT," claimed Thomas Embla Bonnerud, director of product management. "Until now, greater performance could only be achieved at the expense of power efficiency. The nRF52 Series merges barrier breaking performance and power efficiency on a single chip."
The device features a Cortex-M4F processor running at 64MHz, as well as 512kbyte of flash and 64kbyte of RAM. Also featured is a multiprotocol 2.4GHz radio with a receive sensitivity of -96dB and a peak transmit current of 5.5mA. Alongside an on chip RF Balun, the device integrates a fully automatic power management system and a range of on chip analogue and digital peripherals
"With the launch of the nRF52832, we are completely pushing the envelope for what's possible with single chip Bluetooth Smart," Bonnerud added. "Applications that require the sort of processing power and performance that we now pack into this chip have, until now, had to use a two chip solution."
Built on a 55nm process, the nRF52832 is being supplied in a choice of 6 x 6mm QFN and 3 x 3.2mm CSP options and samples are available now.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk