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Bluetooth LE wireless MCUs make connectivity more affordable

Wed, Jun 22, 2022

Texas Instruments has expanded its connectivity portfolio with a family of wireless microcontrollers (MCUs) that enable Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) at half the price of competing devices, it claimed.

Pricing for the CC2340 family will start from $0.79, encouraging engineers to add Bluetooth LE connectivity to more products.

“Industrywide, five billion Bluetooth-enabled devices are forecast to ship in 2022,” said Mark Powell, CEO of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the standards organisation that oversees Bluetooth technology. “The commitment and involvement of Bluetooth SIG members like Texas Instruments allow Bluetooth technology to meet the growing demands for enhanced wireless connectivity in a wider range of applications.”

The CC2340R2 and CC2340R5 wireless MCUs, offering flash memory of 256kbyte and 512kbyte respectively, provide flexibility for engineers and ample space for application code. With the proliferation of Bluetooth LE applications, designers need additional memory capacity to update software remotely. The new wireless MCU family features 36kbyte of RAM with over-the-air download support.

The MCUs include standby current of less than 830nA, which is 40 per cent lower than competing devices, according to the company. The reduction in standby current helps extend battery life for up to 10 years on a coin cell battery in wireless applications, such as electronic shelf labels and tyre pressure monitoring systems, TI claimed. The CC2340 family features an operating temperature range of –40 degrees C to 125 degrees C to help ensure a stable connection across applications, from industrial sensors and medical laboratories to outdoor environments such as EV chargers or smart meters.

Engineers can expand RF performance and connection range with an output power up to +8dBm, which is claimed to be the industry’s highest among competing Bluetooth LE wireless MCUs. In addition, the CC2340 devices feature an integrated RF balun to enable a simpler design with fewer external components, leading to cost savings, the company claimed.

With the increased memory, longer battery life and wider temperature range at an affordable price, engineers can enable more connected everyday applications such as

medical devices. In glucose meters, for example, the company claimed that the CC2340 MCUs’ standby current of less than 830nA leads to an end product shelf life of 18 to 24 months and two weeks of active Bluetooth LE operation on a coin cell battery.

In building automation, smart home hubs can take advantage of the CC2340 MCUs’ wireless protocol support and output power range up to +8dBm. In personal care applications, an electric toothbrush, for example, the CC2340 wireless MCUs offer low power consumption in sleep mode, and can extend battery life, said the company.

To simplify implementation, engineers can connect with TI applications engineers through the TI E2E Bluetooth support forum. Engineers also have access to the royalty-free Bluetooth LE software stack, which TI has supported and kept updated since 2010.

Customers can request samples and a development kit (LP-EM-CC2340R5). The new wireless MCUs are expected to be in volume production in the first half of 2023.

The CC2340R2 and CC2340R5 wireless MCUs are the latest addition to the SimpleLink portfolio that provides innovative connectivity solutions to serve the industrial, automotive and personal electronics markets.

TI will demonstrate the CC2340 wireless MCUs at Embedded World (21-23 June) in Nuremberg, Germany, at Booth 3A-215.

https://www.ti.com

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Integrated listener for NFC wireless charging cuts board footprint by more than half

Wed, Jun 22, 2022

Panthronics has released early samples of what it claimed to be the industry’s first fully integrated NFC wireless charging listener device, the PTX30W.

The single chip PTX30W integrates an efficient rectifier, NFC tag, battery charger and power management as well as protocol handling. The NFC tag supports bidirectional data communication in NFC Type A mode. This enables the transfer of data between the charging cradle and the device under charge, such as the battery’s state of charge or fault indicators, as well as enabling firmware upgrades of both devices.

The PTX30W will work in tandem with an NFC poller such as the Panthronics PTX130W in a charging cradle. It harvests power wirelessly without the need for a microcontroller in the listener device.

It replaces four discrete components with a single chip and occupies less than half the board footprint, to save space in products such as medical sensors, fitness trackers, smart watches, earbuds, hearing aids, smart glasses, smart rings and styluses, said Panthronics.

The PTX30W runs an NFC forum-derived wireless charging protocol that supports power negotiation. This means that the PTX30W will simplify product development, said the company, as it can operate in standalone wireless charging mode with no need for an external microcontroller to run NFC wireless charging operations.

When paired with the Panthronics PTX130W, the NFC poller with the industry’s highest power output, the PTX30W can harvest up to 1W of power for fast charging of lithium-ion batteries, the company claimed.

Mark Dickson, chief marketing officer of Panthronics, said: “NFC wireless charging … operates via a small antenna and supports wireless communication as well as power transfer. Now with the development of the integrated PTX30W, Panthronics is offering device manufacturers a roadmap to even more space savings as well as a simpler system design for faster time-to-market.”

The PTX30W is sampling now to alpha customers. Customer samples will be generally available on the full release of the product later in 2022. Panthronics is presenting the PTX30W prototype demonstration kit at Embedded World (21-23 June) in Nuremberg, Germany, in Hall 1-139.

Founded in 2014, Panthronics is a semiconductor product company headquartered in Graz, Austria. It develops differentiated wireless solutions from the ground up for security and power applications.

http://www.panthronics.com

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Infineon adds the AIROC CYW20820 system on chip for flexibility, low power and high-performance connectivity

Mon, Jun 20, 2022

Infineon Technologies is adding the AIROC CYW20820 Bluetooth and Bluetooth LE (low energy) system on chip (SoC) to its AIROC Bluetooth portfolio. The AIROC CYW20820 is a Bluetooth 5.2 core specification-compliant device for IoT applications. It is designed to support a wide spectrum of uses for home automation and sensors, including medical, home, security and industrial, as well as lighting, Bluetooth Mesh, or any IoT application that needs Bluetooth LE or dual mode Bluetooth connectivity.

The AIROC CYW20820 is claimed to provide reliable connectivity and low power with high performance compute capability, integrating an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller unit with a floating point unit. It features multiple digital interfaces, an optimised memory subsystem and a power amplifier that delivers up to 11.5dBm transmit output power in LE and BR (basic rate) modes, reducing the device footprint and the costs associated with implementing Bluetooth solutions.

Infineon is also adding three modules that include an onboard crystal oscillator, passive components and the AIROC CYW20820 SoC. These integrated modules are globally certified to support fast time-to-market of IoT devices. The AIROC CYBT-243053-02, CYBT-253059-02 and CYBT-243068-02 are supported by ModusToolbox software and tools with code examples to support the rapid development of Bluetooth applications.

“The AIROC CYW20820 Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE SoC and modules are key additions to our portfolio and provide a solution that is low-power, cost-efficient and with scalable performance. With certified AIROC modules, Infineon is taking care of key steps in Bluetooth design to enable customers to have the quickest path to market.” said Sonal Chandrasekharan, vice president of the Bluetooth product line at Infineon.

Infineon’s AIROC wireless products, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combos, have shipped more than a billion devices, claimed the company.

AIROC Bluetooth products leverage a common software framework and are pre-integrated with Infineon’s ModusToolbox software and tools, allowing developers to deliver differentiated products to market on time and on budget.

The AIROC CYW20820 will be shown at Embedded World, Nuremberg, Germany, from 21 to 23 June 2022, in hall 4a, booth #138.

http://www.infineon.com/wireless

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STMicroelectronics’ new inertial modules enable AI training inside the sensor

Mon, Jun 20, 2022

STMicroelectronics has introduced ISM330ISN inertial sensors that contain an intelligent sensor processing unit (ISPU). The company said the power the onlife era: interacting with trained devices, with intelligence moving from “on” the edge to “in” the edge.

The ISM330ISN always-on, six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) for movement and position sensing uses its embedded intelligence to deliver unrivalled performance and accuracy for its size and power, claimed ST. Used in IoT and industrial applications, the IMU sets to accelerate response time and extend battery life in equipment such as condition monitors for predictive maintenance, as well as battery-operated asset trackers and industrial applications, such as robots.

The intelligence built into the ISM330ISN enables smart devices to perform advanced motion detection functions in the sensor without interaction with the external microcontroller (MCU), thus saving power at system level. ST’s approach integrates a specialised processor, the ISPU, in a small area directly on the sensor chip, optimised for machine learning applications. This enables the ISM330ISN module to have a 50 per cent smaller footprint and consume 50 per cent less power than a typical co-packaged MCU, claimed the company.

Developers can programme the ISPU using ST’s NanoEdge AI Studio. This tool is used to deploy AI applications on STM32 microcontrollers. The technology is now available for programming the ISPU, enabling users to easily generate automatically optimised machine learning libraries. Designing an anomaly detection library with AI learning capability directly inside the ISPU is possible with minimal data and just a few clicks, claimed the company, and with no specific data science skills needed.

“Intelligence formerly implemented at the network edge, in an application processor, is now moving to the deep edge, inside the sensor,” said Simone Ferri, general manager of marketing, Analogue MEMS and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics. “Our ISM330ISN IMU heralds a new category of smart sensors, leveraging embedded AI to handle complex operations such as pattern recognition and anomaly detection with greatly increased efficiency and performance.”

The ISM330ISN has the same 3.0 x 2.5 x 0.83mm package outline as conventional inertial modules. Designers can therefore upgrade products quickly and cost-effectively with no obligation to change an established circuit board layout.

The ISM330ISN is covered by ST’s 10-year longevity programme, which provides long-term availability assurance for product designers and manufacturers.

The ISM330ISN is part of ST’s iNEMO family of IMUs. It contains a three-axis accelerometer and three-axis gyroscope with low-noise sensing performance, and an output data rate (ODR) of 6.6kHz. With the ISPU, the sensor ensures consistently high accuracy while consuming only 0.59mA in combination mode with the accelerometer and gyroscope active.

ST’s ISPU architecture, based on digital signal processing (DSP), is compact and power-efficient, with 40kbytes of RAM, and occupies just 8,000 gates on the sensor die. Performing floating-point operations with single-bit precision, ISPU is suitable for machine learning applications and binary neural networks, claimed the company.

The ISM330ISN is scheduled to enter production in the second half of 2022 and will be available from st.com or distributors. NanoEdge AI Studio enabling the creation of libraries designed for specific ISPU part numbers is available at no charge on ST.com.

ST’s ISPU and the NanoEdge.AI tools have been shortlisted for the Embedded Award at Embedded World 2022, in the Hardware and Software categories respectively (in Nuremberg, Germany, 21-23 June). ST will be exhibiting in Hall 4A-148.

https://www.st.com

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Bluetooth LE wireless MCUs make connectivity more affordable

Integrated listener for NFC wireless charging cuts board footprint by more than half

Infineon adds the AIROC CYW20820 system on chip for flexibility, low power and high-performance connectivity

STMicroelectronics’ new inertial modules enable AI training inside the sensor

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