BTLC1000 low-power Bluetooth SoC leads the pack

The SmartConnect BTLC1000 from Atmel is a super-low-power Bluetooth SMART (BLE 4.1) SoC with an MCU, a 2.4 GHz transceiver, a modem, a MAC, a PA, a TR switch, and a power management unit. And it’s available in a tiny 2.3 x 2.2 mm WLCSP package. There have been at least six Bluetooth Smart chip releases in the last few months, but this device stands out for a few reasons.

These chips target wearables, and so low power is essential, and this chip is the lowest you can find, taking less than 4 mA in RX and less than 3 mA in TX at 0 dbm. The chip's all-important sleep current is 1.1 µA and the receiver has -95 dBm sensitivity. It has a Cortex-M0 processor, 128 Kbytes of RAM, and a qualified Bluetooth Smart protocol stack in ROM, and it includes L2CAP service layer protocol and a security manager. The IC's security features include AES-128 and SHA-256 accelerators, and it has a buck DC/DC converter. Prices start at only $1.59 ea/1,000.