Most advanced high-performance single-chip BLE SoC in a tiny package

Nordic Semiconductor has announced availability of a new Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (WL-CSP) variant of its nRF52832 Bluetooth Low Energy (formerly known as Bluetooth Smart) System-on-Chip (SoC) that occupies a quarter of the footprint area of the standard-packaged Nordic nRF52832 and targets next-generation, high-performance wearables and space-constrained IoT applications. The nRF52832 WL-CSP has a super-compact 3mm x 3.2mm footprint compared to the standard 6mm x 6mm footprint of its larger but conventionally-packaged nRF52832 QFN48 cousin, yet offers the same full single-chip feature set and best-in-class, ultra-low-power application operation. This includes a powerful on-board 64MHz ARM Cortex-M4F processor that enables protocol and application task processing to be completed in unprecedentedly short time-frames, thus allowing power-saving sleep modes to be entered more quickly compared to competing devices. Like the nRF52832, the nRF52832 WL-CSP features: 512kB Flash and 64kB RAM; on-chip NFC tag for consumer-friendly Touch-to-Pair; best-in-class ultra-high performance, ultra-low-power multi-protocol Bluetooth low energy, ANT, and proprietary 2.4GHz radio; 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents; an on-chip RF Balun; plus a novel fully-automatic power management system that makes achieving optimal power consumption easy for designers. The nRF52832 WL-CSP is compatible with Nordic's Bluetooth 4.2 stacks and supporting SDKs including the latest S132 multi-role concurrent software stack, nRF5 SDK, nRF5 SDK for HomeKit, and nRF5 SDK for AirFuel (resonant wireless charging), says the company. "The availability of a super-compact footprint nRF52832 brings new design opportunities to wearables and other space-constrained IoT applications," said Kjetil Holstad, product manager, Ultra Low-Power Wireless Unit, Nordic Semiconductor. "And this SoC is available now in high production volumes for immediate inclusion in upcoming product development. The evolution of wearables to date has only ever gone one way: ever increasing performance and functionality in ever-slimmer, lighter, form factors. The nRF52832 WL-CSP is by a clear margin, the smallest and most advanced Bluetooth low energy SoC available on the market today."