Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 Series-Based Bluetooth Smart Modules Offer Greater Processing Power, Lower Power Consumption And Better Sensitivity

Nordic Semiconductor recently announces that Tokyo, Japan-based electronic component and wireless module manufacturer, Taiyo Yuden, has selected Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth Smart System-on-Chip (SoC) for its new EYSHCNZXZ and EYSHJNZXZ Bluetooth Smart Modules. The use of Nordic wireless technology for the modules continues a long-term design partnership.

The modules are fully-tested Bluetooth Smart solutions compatible with the latest version of the Bluetooth Core Specification (v4.2) simplifying the design of a wide range of connected products where performance small size, and low power consumption are key factors. The modules offer a compact 9.6 by 12.9 by 2mm (EYSHCNZXZ) or 5.1 by 11.3 by 1.3mm (EYSHJNZXZ) form factor, making them suitable for a variety of small, thin devices including healthcare equipment, wearable devices, and smartphone peripherals.

The nRF52 Series is Nordic Semiconductor’s sixth generation of ultra low power (ULP) wireless connectivity solutions. The nRF52832 SoC at the heart of the Taiyo Yuden modules features a 64MHz, 32-bit ARM Cortex M4F CPU which delivers up to 60 percent more generic processing power, offering 10 times the Floating Point performance and twice the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) performance compared to competing solutions. The 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio offers Bluetooth Smart, ANT™ and proprietary 2.4GHz support with -96 dB RX sensitivity and 5.5 mA peak RX/TX currents. The nRF52832 also features 512 kB Flash memory and 64 kB RAM, a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with the nRF51 Series, on-chip analog and digital peripherals for glueless interfacing to external components, and an NFC™ tag for consumer-friendly Touch-to-Pair.

The nRF52832 SoC’s powerful processor, sensitive multiprotocol radio and large memory capacity makes the device the world’s most powerful Bluetooth Smart single-chip solution. In turn, the nRF52832 SoC ensures the Taiyo Yuden modules are suitable for complex Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The nRF52832 SoC’s also supports over-the-air (OTA) application software and Bluetooth Smart firmware upgrades to, for example, protecting the modules against security flaws when used in IoT applications.

The EYSHCNZXZ offers a high performance ceramic chip antenna, while the EYSHJNZXZ has a PCB antenna. Both modules feature a generous set of general-purpose input/outputs (GPIOs), as well as SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, PDM, and 12-bit ADC interfaces together with analog inputs. Output power is adjustable up to +4dBm.

Taiyo Yuden previously offered a range of modules based on Nordic’s nRF51 Series Bluetooth Smart SoCs. The nRF52 Series SoCs offer greater processing power and higher radio sensitivity yet lower power consumption compared to the older modules. However, because the nRF51 and nRF52 Series share a common software architecture (which uniquely separates the Bluetooth Smart RF software (“stack”) and customer application code) OEMs and ODMs can easily reuse proven legacy software.

"We have had a successful module product line based on Nordic's nRF51 Series chips for several years, however the nRF52 Series more powerful ARM processor and greater memory allocation makes it a better choice for single-chip Bluetooth Smart solutions for complex IoT applications,” says Mikio Aoki, Taiyo Yuden Project Manager. “Nonetheless, both the nRF52832 SoC’s ARM processor and software architecture are compatible with the nRF51 Series modules, making it much easier for our customers to upgrade to the new modules.”