Silicon Labs launches the next generation of its Wireless Gecko platform, Series 2, designed to make Internet of Things (IoT) products more powerful, efficient and reliable. The company reports that Series 2 delivers the industry’s most versatile and scalable IoT connectivity platform. The initial Series 2 products include small-form-factor system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices with a dedicated security core and an on-chip radio delivering 2.5X the wireless range of competing solutions.
The Series 2 wireless connectivity portfolio simplifies IoT product design with highly-integrated SoC options and reusable software that make RF communication more dependable and energy efficient. Series 2 helps developers optimize system cost and performance for a wide range of smart home, commercial and industrial IoT applications.
The first products in Silicon Labs’ Series 2 portfolio include EFR32MG21 SoCs supporting multiprotocol, Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth mesh networking, and EFR32BG21 SoCs dedicated to Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth mesh. These SoCs provide ideal solutions for line-powered IoT products including gateways, hubs, lights, voice assistants and smart electric meters.
Features include:
- Best-in-class RF performance with +20 dBm output power and up to +124.5 dB link budget
- Robust wireless radio with improved blocking performance
- Powerful processing with an 80 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 core with TrustZone technology
- Low active current (50.9 µA/MHz) to meet stringent green energy requirements, a benefit of manufacturing on low-power 40 nm process technology
- Industry’s smallest multiprotocol SoCs in a 4 mm x 4 mm QFN package
- Lower BOM count and system cost with fewer matching components and no need for external inductors or power amplifiers
- Flexible pre-certified modules based on EFR32xG21 SoCs planned for Q3
EFR32xG21 SoCs enhanced security features include:
- A dedicated security core enables faster, lower-power encryption than software techniques.
- A true random number generator (TRNG) strengthens device cryptography.
- Secure boot loading ensures authenticity of firmware images and over-the-air updates.
- Secure debug access control helps OEMs prevent unauthorized access to end products.
For Series 2 support, designers can take advantage of Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio integrated development environment (IDE). The Simplicity Studio IDE offers a suite of tools, including a unified wireless development kit, SDKs, energy profiler, patented network analysis, application demos and mobile apps.
Samples and production quantities of the EFR32MG21 and EFR32BG21 SoCs are available now in a 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32 package. The Wireless Gecko starter kit mainboard and EFR32xG21 radio boards are also available now. For additional information, take a closer look at Series 2.