Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Multi-Protocol 2.4GHz SoC

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Multi-Protocol System-on-Chip (SoC) is an ultra-low power, highly flexible single chip solution ideal for short range wireless applications. The embedded 2.4GHz transceiver supports BLUETOOTH® 5.2 / BLUETOOTH Low Energy, 802.15.4 / Thread, ANT/ANT+, and proprietary 2.4GHz protocols. This SoC is on-air compatible with existing Nordic nRF52 and nRF51 products. The Dynamic Multi-protocol feature of the nRF52840 allows concurrent BLUETOOTH 5.2 and Thread wireless connectivity. Dynamic Multi-Protocol ensures the radio hardware’s operational time is shared between the protocols, allowing both to remain connected. Transmitting and receiving data using one protocol does not interfere with the other link during concurrent support.

The nRF52840 SoC is built around a 32-bit, 64MHz Arm® Cortex®-M4F CPU with 1MB flash and 256kB RAM on chip. This CPU configuration supports DSP instructions, HW accelerated Floating Point Unit (FPU) calculations, single-cycle multiply and accumulate, and hardware divide for energy-efficient processing complex operations.

The nRF52840 SoC employs power and resource management to maximize application energy efficiency and battery life. The supply range between 1.7V and 5.5V supports primary and secondary cell battery technologies and direct USB supply without the need for external regulators. All peripherals have independent and automated clock and power management to ensure they are powered down when not required for task operation to keep power consumption to a minimum without the application having to implement and test complex power management schemes. The nRF52840 has a comprehensive system of automated and adaptive power management features. These features are built into all aspects of device operation from power supply switching, to peripheral bus/EasyDMA memory management, and automated shut down of all but the absolute essential peripherals required to perform a task.

Best-in-class security is provided by the on-chip Arm TrustZone® CryptoCell. A full-speed (12Mbs) USB 2.0 controller is also included on-chip. An extensive range of peripherals are available with a number of high-performance digital interfaces such as high-speed SPI (32MHz) and quad SPI (32MHz) to allow direct interfacing to displays and external memory sources. The nRF52840 SoC also features over-the-air device firmware upgrade (OTA-DFU) support. This allows in-the-field updates of application and/or protocol stacks.

NFC™-A tag support is included on-chip. NFC Type 2 and Type 4 tag emulation protocol stacks are provided by Nordic opening up a range of new applications, like NFC payment, and improved user experience for existing BLE applications with Out-of-Band (OOB) pairing. OOB pairing using NFC simplifies the process of authenticated pairing between two BLUETOOTH devices by exchanging authentication information over an NFC link.

The nRF52840 SoC is offered in a compact 7mm x 7mm AQFN73 package with 48 available GPIO.

Features

Dynamic multi-protocol transceiver
- BLUETOOTH 5 / BLUETOOTH low energy
- IEEE 802.15.4/Thread
- ANT/ANT+
- Proprietary 2.4GHz
Arm Cortex-M4 32-bit processor with FPU, 64MHz
Up to 111dB link budget for BLUETOOTH long-range mode
Full-speed 12Mbs USB controller
On-chip NFC-A tag for Out-of-Band (OOB) pairing
Software stacks available as downloads
Application development independent of the protocol stack
+8dBm to -20dBm programmable output power from
-96dBm Sensitivity for BLUETOOTH low energy
On-air compatible with nRF52 and nRF51
Arm Cryptocell CC310 cryptographic accelerator

1.7V to 5.5V supply voltage range
SPI/UART/PWM interfaces
Programmable peripheral interface (PPI)
32MHz SPI interface
32MHz quad SPI interface
RSSI (1dB resolution)
EasyDMA for all digital interfaces
RAM mapped FIFO using EasyDMA
12-bit/200K SPS ADC
128-bit AES/ECB/CCM/AAR co-processor
Single-ended antenna output (on-chip balun)
On-chip DC-DC buck converter
Quadrature demodulator
Up to 25mA regulated supply for external components
7mm x 7mm AQFN73 package

Applications

Advanced wearables
- Connected watches
- Advanced personal fitness devices
- Wearables with wireless payment
- Connected health
- Virtual/augmented reality applications

IoT
- Smart Home sensors and controllers
- Industrial IoT sensors and controllers
Interactive entertainment devices
- Advanced remote controls
- Gaming controllers