Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE Modules Enable Direction Finding And Long Range In IoT Products
LAPIS Technology’s MK71521 and MK71511 modules employ Nordic’s nRF52832 and nRF52811 SoCs to deliver processing power and simplified development
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Yokohama, Japan-based ROHM Group company, LAPIS Technology, has selected Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) System-on-Chip (SoC) and nRF52811 SoC supporting Direction Finding, to power its ‘MK71521’ and ‘MK71511’ modules.
Direction Finding support
Both modules come in a 9.7 by 13.4 by 2mm form factor—including the on-board PCB antenna—are qualified over a -40 to 85°C temperature range, and are designed for developers of industrial and consumer IoT solutions including healthcare, security, and fitness devices. The MK71521 module is powered by Nordic’s nRF52832 multiprotocol SoC, which features a powerful 64MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU), 2.4GHz radio featuring -96-dBm RX sensitivity and a total link budget of >100dBm, and generous 512kB Flash memory plus 64kB RAM. The MK71511 module is powered by Nordic’s nRF52811 SoC, the first product in Nordic’s low power wireless range to support Direction Finding, which brings precise positioning capability to the high throughput, long range, and enhanced coexistence capabilities of Bluetooth 5.
Nordic’s nRF52811 multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex M4 processor, with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Direction Finding, Bluetooth 5.2, Thread, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring 4 dBm output power with -97 dBm sensitivity (at 1 Mbps in Bluetooth 5 mode), and 192 kB Flash memory plus 24 kB RAM. The nRF52811 SoC is supplied with Nordic’s S112 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certified RF software protocol stack for building advanced Bluetooth LE applications. The S112 SoftDevice features Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster and Observer Bluetooth LE roles, supports up to four connections, and enables concurrent role operation.
Nordic’s nRF52832 is supplied with Nordic’s S132 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certifed RF software protocol stack for building advanced Bluetooth LE applications. The S132 SoftDevice features Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster and Observer Bluetooth LE roles, supports up to twenty connections, and enables concurrent role operation.
Generous memory
“We selected Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC because its generous memory allocation and SoftDevices are suitable for most Bluetooth LE applications including Bluetooth mesh,” says Hiroyuki Fukuyama, Director of LSI Business Unit, LAPIS Technology. “In the case of the nRF52811 SoC, support for Direction Finding was key.
“Nordic’s range of SoftDevices and rich sample software provides the user with a range of options based on their development requirements.”
Source: Nordic Semiconductor