Development kit supports Bluetooth5 design options

Bluetooth 5 introduces longer range and throughput improvements that significantly enhance Bluetooth wireless technology’s suitability for smart home, wearables, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The kit enables developers to evaluate wireless connectivity designs based on the onboard nRF52840 SoC.

It includes four user-programmable buttons and LEDs, is hardware compatible with the Arduino Uno R3-based shields, and features connector pins for all inputs and outputs (I/O) and interfaces, including a dedicated connector for the included external NFC antenna.

The nRF52840 SoC builds on the architecture of Nordic Semiconductor’s existing nRF52 Series of SoCs to support complex Bluetooth low energy and other low-power wireless applications.

The SoC employs a 64MHz, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F processor employed on Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC, plus a CPU with ample generic processing power, floating point, and digital signal processor (DSP) performance.

The nRF52840-PDK complies with the Bluetooth 5 specification, which, coupled with increased maximum output power, enables the nRF52840 SoC to deliver Bluetooth low energy wireless connectivity with up to four times the range or up to twice the raw data bandwidth (2 Mbps) compared with the Bluetooth low energy implementation of Bluetooth 4.2.

In addition to Bluetooth 5 support, the nRF52840 SoC includes IEEE 802.15.4 capabilities for ZigBee and Thread-based smart home technologies or as a Network Adaptation Layer with 6LoWPAN and standard internet protocols.

The nRF52840 SoC’s support for 802.15.4 significantly extends its capability as an interoperable foundation technology for IoT, smart home, or industrial sensor wireless networks using several different wireless technologies.