STMicro has announced yet another family part of their STM32 portfolio with STM32WB micro-controller family featuring an Arm Cortex M4 application core, a Cortex M0+ core to offload the main core of networking tasks, as well as Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 radios.
The MCU’s 802.15.5 radio can run other wireless protocols concurrently, including OpenThread, ZigBee, or proprietary protocols used to connect devices to the Internet of Things (IoT).
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STM32WB MCUs share the following key specifications:
- Application Core – Arm Cortex-M4 CPU @ up to 64 MHz with FPU, adaptive real-time accelerator (ART Accelerator), MPU, 80 DMIPS and DSP instructions
- Memory – Up to 256 KB RAM, including 64 KB with hardware parity check, 20×32-bit Backup Register
- Storage
- Up to 1 MB Flash with sector protection (PCROP) against R/W operations for Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4 SW stack
- Quad SPI memory interface with XIP
- Radio
- 2.4 GHz RF transceiver supporting Bluetooth 5 and IEEE 802.15.4-2011 PHY and MAC
- RX Sensitivity: -96 dBm (Bluetooth Low Energy at 1 Mbps), -100 dBm (802.15.4)
- Programmable output power up to +6 dBm with 1 dB steps
- Support for 2 Mbps
- Dedicated Arm 32-bit Cortex M0 + CPU for real-time Radio layer
- Peripherals
- Up to 72 fast I/Os, 70 of them 5 V-tolerant
- 12-bit ADC 4.26Msps, up to 16-bit
- Inter Processor Communication Controller (IPCC) for communication with Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4
- 2x DMA controllers (7x channels each) supporting ADC, SPI, I2C, USART, QSPI, SAI, AES, Timers
- 1x USART (ISO 7816, IrDA, SPI Master, Modbus and Smartcard mode)
- 1x LPUART (Low Power)
- 2x SPI 32 Mbit/s, 2x I2C (SMBus/PMBus)
- 1x SAI (dual channels)
- 1x USB 2.0 FS device, crystal-less, BCD and LPM
- Touch Sensing controller, up to 28 channels
- LCD 8×40 with step-up converter
- Timers – 1x 16-bit four channels, 2x 16-bits two channels, 1x 32-bits four channels,2x 16-bits (ultra-low-power)
- 1x independent Systick, 1x independent watchdog,1x window watchdog
- Security & ID
- Secure Firmware Installation (SFI) for Bluetooth® Low Energy and 802.15.4 SW stack
- Hardware Encryption AES 256-bit
- Customer key storage / key manager services
- HW Public Key Authority (PKA)
- Cryptographic algorithms: RSA, Diffie-Helman, ECC over GF(p)
- True random number generator (TRNG)
- Sector protection against R/W operation (PCROP)
- CRC calculation unit
- 96-bit unique ID
- 64-bit unique ID. Possibility to derive 802.15.5 64-bit and Bluetooth® Low Energy 48-bit EUI
- Power
- Supply – 1.71 V to 3.6 V
- Consumption
- 30 nA shutdown mode
- 600 nA Standby mode + RTC + 32 KB RAM
- 1.8 μA Stop mode + RTC + 256 KB RAM
- Active-mode MCU + RF (SMPS ON): < 50 μA/MHz
- RX: 3.8 mA
- TX at 0 dBm: 5.5 mA
- Debugging / Development – Serial wire debug (SWD), JTAG for the Application processor, application cross trigger with input and output, Embedded Trace Macrocell for application
- Temperature Range – -40°C to 85°C or -40°C to 105°C
- Package – 48-pin UQFN, 68-pin VQFN, 100-pin WLCSP
The boot loader supporting support USART, SPI, I2C and USB interfaces, and OTA (Over the Air) update for Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4 are possible.
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Nine SKUs are now available with variation in the amount of flash / RAM, and package size as shown in the chart above.
The company provides STM32CubeMonitor-RF for radio testing, STM32CubeMX pinout/clock configurator and code generator, as well as peripheral drivers, middleware, code examples, and a dedicated STM32 Nucleo (MB135SA) board / evaluation pack to start with the platform.
STM32WB engineering samples will be provided to lead customers in Q1 2018, with pricing starting at $1.56 for high-volume orders. More information can be found in the product page, and press presentation document (PDF).

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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