Nordic Semi nRF5340 Dual Arm Cortex-M33 SoC Supports Bluetooth 5.1/Mesh, NFC, Thread & Zigbee

After introducing nRF52833 WiSoC with Bluetooth 5.1 direction-finding support last month, Nordic Semiconductors has now launched another multi-protocol wireless SoC with nRF5340 featuring two Arm Cortex-M33 cores and supporting Bluetooth 5.1, Bluetooth Mesh, NFC, Thread & Zigbee.

One of the Cortex-M33 is an application core incorporating  1 MB Flash and 512 KB RAM, as well as Arm CryptoCell-312, Arm TrustZone technology, and Secure Key Storage for the highest level of security, and the other Cortex-M33 core is used for networking functions.  The company also announced nRF5340 PDK to get started with the new WiSoC.

nRF5340 Dual-Core Multiprotocol SoC

Key features and specifications:

• CPU
  • Application core  – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 128/64 MHz with 1 MB Flash + 512 KB RAM, 8 KB 2-way set associative cache; CoreMark: 510/255; CoreMark/mA: 65/76
  • Network core –  Arm Cortex-M33 @ 64 MHz with 256 KB Flash + 64 KB RAM, 2 KB instruction cache; CoreMark: 238; CoreMark/mA: 101
• Wireless
  • Protocol support – Bluetooth 5.1 LE with direction-finding support, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT, and 2.4 GHz proprietary
  • On-air data rate
    • Bluetooth LE: 2 Mbps/1 Mbps/125 kbps
    • 802.15.4: 250 kbps
    • 2.4 GHz proprietary: 2 Mbps/1 Mbps
  • TX power – From +3 to -20 dBm in 1 dB steps
  • RX sensitivity – Bluetooth LE: -97.5 dBm at 1 Mbps, -94.3 dBm at 2 Mbps
  • Radio current consumption DC/DC at 3V
    • • 4.7 mA at +3 dBm TX power
      • 3.2 mA at 0 dBm TX power
      • 2.6 mA in RX at 1 Mbps
      • 3.0 mA in RX at 2 Mbps
• Digital interfaces
  • 12 Mbps full-speed USB
  • 96 MHz encrypted QSPI32 MHz high-speed SPI
  • 3xSPI, 3xTWI, 3xUART
  • I2S, PDM
  • 3xPWM, QDEC
• Analog interfaces – 12-bit, 200 ksps ADC, low-power comparator, general-purpose comparator
• Other peripherals – 6x 32-bit timer/counter, 4x 24-bit real-time counter, DPPI, GPIOTE, Temp sensor, WDT, RNG
• Oscillators – 64 MHz from 32 MHz external crystal or internal32 kHz from crystal, RC or synthesized
• Security
  • Features – Trusted execution, root-of-trust, secure key storage, 128-bit AES
  • Hardware – Arm TrustZone, Arm CryptoCell-312, SPU, KMU, ACL
• Supply voltage – 1.7 to 5.5 V
• System current consumption DC/DC at 3 V
  • 1.1 μA in System OFF
  • 1.5 μA in System ON
  • 1.6 μA in System ON with network core RTC running
  • 1.8 μA in System ON with 64 KB network core RAM retained and network core RTC running
• Package – 7×7 mm aQFN94 with 48 GPIOs
• Temperature range – -40°C to 105°C

nRF5340 software development is done through the nRF Connect SDK which comes with Zephyr RTOS, a Bluetooth LE protocol stack, application examples, and hardware drivers. The nRF Connect SDK also supports nRF9160 NB-IoT/eMTC System-in-Package (SiP), and as such can be used for the development of cellular IoT, and low power, short-range application development.

You’ll find nRF Connect SDK on GitHub, and technical documents for software development on Nordic Semi’s documentation website. More details about the chip itself may be found on the product page.

nRF5340-PDK

Nordic Semi has also launched the nRF5340-PDK (Preview Development Kit) giving access to all of the nRF5340’s features and GPIOs available, and including an on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger for programming and debugging.

Key features:

• WiSoC – Nordic nRF5340 described above
• Antennas –  2.4 GHz and NFC antennas
• Expansion – Arduino Rev3 headers
• Debugging
  • SEGGER J-Link OB programmer/debugger
  • SWF RF connector for direct RF measurements
  • Pins for measuring power consumption
• Misc – 4x User-programmable LEDs and 4x buttons
• Power Supply – 1.7-5.0 V supply from USB, external, Li-Po battery or CR2032 coin cell battery

The board and SoC target professional lighting, industrial applications, advanced wearables, medical devices, smart home appliances, as well as asset tracking and RTLS (Real-Time Location System).

The board ships with an NFC antenna and a CR2032 battery, as well as a quick start guide. Note the PDK will be replaced by the nRF5340 DK when the nRF5340 SoC mass-production is about to start. More details, including the Altium design files, can be found on the product page.

nRF5340 SoC engineering samples are expected soon, and the nRF5340 -DK is available now through distributors such as Digikey for $49.

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