Bluetooth portfolio strengthened to encompass the widest possible variety of use cases

u-blox continues its commitment to Bluetooth low energy innovation by expanding the BMD product series, recently acquired from Rigado. The company has introduced the BMD-341, the BMD-345, and the BMD-360 Bluetooth modules, providing customers with a comprehensive variety of solutions for their particular application criteria.

Fully compliant with the current Bluetooth v5.1 specification, the BMD-360 module is the company's first Bluetooth module to support Bluetooth’s direction-finding feature. The device is highly optimised for cost-sensitive, long-range beacon applications, asset tags for smart building and smart manufacturing systems, IoT infrastructure, warehouse logistics, and numerous other high precision, indoor location-based services. Central to its functional abilities is the nRF52811 SoC from Nordic Semiconductor. This includes a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 processor running at 64MHz, and a built-in antenna element.

The device is complemented by the BMD-345 and BMD-341 Bluetooth 5.0 modules, both built around the nRF52840 SoC. Both modules provide a U.FL connector for applications needing an external antenna. This makes them excellent for deployment in challenging environments, including medical and industrial devices built into metal enclosures.

“Through the introduction of these modules we add important new features and solution capabilities for our customers, allowing us to attend to a diverse cross-section of client needs,” states Len Albertsson, principal product manager, Product Center Short Range Radio at u-blox. “Offering ever-greater coverage and new high precision indoor positioning capabilities, it’s exciting to see Bluetooth grow out of its niche as a short-range communication technology.”