Bluetooth 5 chip for cost-sensitive applications

“This new product offers essential performance benefits of Bluetooth 5 to the most cost-sensitive and high-volume applications by offering: two times the data bandwidth [2Mbit/s] of the Bluetooth low energy implementation of Bluetooth 4.2, and eight times the broadcasting ability with advertising extensions that increase the advertising packet payload size to 251 bytes for more efficient data transfer, particularly in beacon applications.” said distributor Rutronik, which is stocking the part.

The new part has the same 100dBm 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio link-budget as the firm’s existing nRF52832 and a 64MHz 32bit ARM Cortex M4 processor “providing similar RF performance and computational power with reduced radio energy consumption,” said Rutronik.

That consumption is 4.6mA peak for transmit at 0dBm and 4.6mA peak for receive at 1Mbit/s, where sensitivity is 96dBm. Maximum output power is +4dBm.

196kyte flash and 24kbyte RAM are provided, and alongside this sits an ADC, an analogue comparator, a digital mic input (PDM), four channels of PWM, a quadrature decoder interface and serial ports for SPI, I2C and UART.

It comes in a choice of 6x6mm 48pin QFN with 32 I/O pins, or a 5x5mm 32pin QFN with 16 I/O pins.

Applications are expected in industrial sensors, industrial actuators, wearables, smart home sensors, computer peripherals, RF remote controls, A4WP wireless charging, beacons, sports sensors, fitness sensors, health products, smart watches, radio control toys, games and building automation.

Rutronik also stocks module which are based on Nordic ICs, from Telit, InsightSiP, Dynastream, Fujitsu and RF Digital; as well as matching quartz crystals, antennas and balun filters.