Recently, in the highly anticipated OFweek 2025 Veken Cup China Industrial Automation and Digitalization Industry Awards, Nordic Semiconductor successfully clinched the "Outstanding Technological Innovation Enterprise Award" with its exceptional innovation capabilities and internationally leading wireless connectivity technologies. This honor stands as a powerful testament to Nordic Semiconductor’s continuous dedication and innovation in fields such as low-power Bluetooth, cellular IoT, power management, and Wi-Fi.
Professor Wang Junbo from the School of Intelligent Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University (left 1) Recipient: Jacken Liao, Sales Manager for South China at Nordic Semiconductor (right 2)
In terms of technological innovation achievements, Nordic Semiconductor has made remarkable progress. Its nRF54L series wireless System-on-Chip (SoC) products are industry models. The series includes the previously released nRF54L15, along with the newly launched nRF54L10 and nRF54L05. These products integrate a 2.4 GHz radio with MCU functions (including CPU, memory, and peripherals) into a single ultra-low-power chip, bringing significantly enhanced efficiency and superior processing capabilities to low-power Bluetooth and IoT applications.
The nRF54L series supports a wide range of application scenarios, from simple high-volume products to advanced designs with higher requirements. It is widely used in wearables, smart bracelets, game controllers, HID devices, as well as medical equipment, smart homes, and industrial IoT products. Among them:
·The nRF54L15, equipped with 1.5 MB of non-volatile memory (NVM) and 256 KB of RAM, is ideal for demanding applications;
·The nRF54L10, featuring 1.0 MB of NVM and 192 KB of RAM, targets mid-range applications;
·The nRF54L05, optimized for cost-sensitive applications, comes with 0.5 MB of NVM and 96 KB of RAM.
The series also offers up to 35 GPIOs and an ultra-compact 2.4 x 2.2 mm WLCSP (Wafer-Level Chip Scale Package) option, which is 50% smaller in size compared to the similar nRF52840. Additionally, Nordic provides a 6x6 pin-to-pin compatible QFN (Quad Flat No-Lead) package series, greatly ensuring design flexibility and optimizing manufacturing costs.
Furthermore, the nRF54L series integrates a low-power RISC-V coprocessor, meeting advanced application requirements without the need for additional external components, effectively reducing BOM (Bill of Materials) costs and enabling compact designs. The series supports low-power Bluetooth, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Matter, Zigbee, Amazon Sidewalk, and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols, with enhanced features such as a data transfer rate of up to 4 Mbps. It is also future-ready, supporting the Bluetooth 6.0 specification, including Bluetooth Channel Sounding.
Compared to the market-leading nRF52 series, the nRF54L series boasts lower power consumption, double the processing power, and triple the processing efficiency. By leveraging its deep design expertise—such as proprietary intellectual property (IP) like low-leakage RAM and advanced radio technology—and being among the first to transition to the 22 nm process node (TSMC 22ULL® technology), Nordic has significantly enhanced ultra-low-power capabilities and processing efficiency while strengthening supply chain resilience. In terms of security, the nRF54L series integrates features such as TrustZone isolation, tamper sensors, and hardened cryptographic accelerators, meeting critical advanced security requirements. Building on the success of the nRF52 series, the nRF54L series has shipped billions of units and is trusted by thousands of developers.
Advancing Cellular IoT Technology: nRF9151 Module
Nordic Semiconductor’s compact, low-power system-in-package product, the nRF9151, and its companion nRF9151 Development Kit (DK) have also delivered outstanding performance. The nRF9151 is a fully integrated, pre-certified module with an application MCU, suitable for a wide range of application development or use as a standalone cellular modem. It greatly simplifies the development and deployment of scalable products in large-scale IoT markets such as industrial automation, asset tracking, smart cities, smart metering, and smart agriculture. Notably, the nRF9151 is not subject to U.S. tariff restrictions based on its country of origin.
The nRF9151 offers a cost-effective globally universal solution, supporting 3GPP Release 14 LTE-M/NB-IoT global coverage and DECT NR+. It features a unique attribute of significantly reduced board space, enabling more compact product designs without compromising performance. In addition to supporting Power Class 3 (23 dBm), it also supports Power Class 5 (20 dBm) output power. Its unique low-power design reduces peak power consumption by 45%, effectively lowering costs for battery-powered products, and future firmware versions will add Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) support.
Optimizing Energy Efficiency for Primary Battery Applications: nPM2100 PMIC
In the field of power management, Nordic Semiconductor’s nPM2100 Power Management IC (PMIC) excels. It manages energy resources through ultra-efficient boost regulators and various energy-saving features, effectively extending the operating time of each battery in disposable (non-rechargeable) primary battery applications. Application examples include wireless mice and keyboards, consumer asset tracking, remote controls, and portable medical devices. It can manage the power supply for low-power SoCs or MCUs, such as Nordic’s advanced multi-protocol wireless products in the nRF52, nRF53, and nRF54 series.
The nPM2100 is optimized for high efficiency and compact size, configurable via an I2C-compatible Two-Wire Interface (TWI), enabling easy implementation of advanced features such as transport mode and precise battery level measurement. It also features two GPIOs for time-critical control functions as an alternative to serial communication.
Primarily targeting primary battery applications, the nPM2100 supports multiple battery types. Its boost regulator output ranges from 1.8 to 3.3 V, powered by an input range of 0.7 to 3.4 V, and can deliver a maximum current of 150 mA. It also powers a load switch/LDO with an output voltage range of 0.8 to 3.0 V and a maximum current of 50 mA. The regulator has an ultra-low quiescent current (IQ) of only 150 nA, achieving up to 95% power conversion efficiency at 50 mA and 90.5% at 10 µA, making it one of the most efficient contemporary boost regulators on the market.
An Innovation Model for Low-Power Wi-Fi 6 Companion ICs: nRF7002
In Nordic’s technical layout in the Wi-Fi field, the nRF7002, as the core product of Wi-Fi 6 companion ICs, demonstrates significant advantages in low power consumption, high security, and strong compatibility, providing an efficient solution for wireless connectivity in IoT devices.
The development kit companion to the nRF7002 is one of the few Wi-Fi 6 certified reference designs in the embedded market, supporting dual bands and Target Wake Time (TWT). This greatly simplifies the delivery process of Wi-Fi 6 certified products based on the nRF70 series, allowing customers to directly leverage its mature technology to achieve high performance while avoiding complex certification procedures, saving significant time and resource costs.
In terms of integration and adaptation, the nRF7002 performs exceptionally well: it not only works seamlessly with Nordic’s own nRF52840 and nRF5340 multi-protocol SoCs but also is compatible with non-Nordic host devices. When combined with the nRF9160 cellular IoT system-in-package and nRF Cloud services, it enables precise positioning through SSID sniffing of local Wi-Fi hubs. In indoor or dense urban scenarios where GPS signals are weak, it not only compensates for the accuracy limitations of cellular and GNSS positioning but also is more energy-efficient than traditional positioning methods, making it an ideal choice for applications such as asset tracking.
As a key member of the nRF70 series, the nRF7002 inherits the series’ core features of low power consumption, high security, and seamless coexistence. It is supported by supporting tools such as evaluation kits and plug-in boards for rapid development. Its application scenarios widely cover high-bandwidth transmission (e.g., video streaming, large file transfers), multi-device concurrency (e.g., public hotspots, large office environments), and smart homes (e.g., smart thermostats, security cameras). It can also collaborate with low-power Bluetooth and cellular IoT technologies or be compatible with the Matter standard, further expanding the connectivity boundaries of IoT applications.
These new products and leading technologies launched by Nordic Semiconductor have created more efficient, high-performance, and longer-lasting wireless devices for the era of the Internet of Everything, significantly enhancing the performance and flexibility of a wide range of IoT applications. They fully demonstrate the company’s continuous innovation and progress in the field of wireless connectivity.
Winning the "OFweek 2025 Veken Cup Outstanding Technological Innovation Enterprise Award" in China’s Industrial Automation and Digitalization Industry is not only a high recognition of Nordic Semiconductor’s past achievements but also sets a benchmark for innovative development in the industry, inspiring more enterprises to continue exploring the path of technological innovation.
(Reprinted from China Grid https://news.eccn.com)