Bluetooth Low Energy is surely poised for major growth. The low-energy part of this communications specification makes it a very compelling way to connect. A lot of people will find a lot of uses for BLE.
The BlueNRG low-power BLE network processor IC from STMicroelectronics won a Product of the Year Award for being a qualified and ready single-chip device that can replace modules and be much more cost-effective.
The STMicroelectronics team in Catania
This great QFN32-packaged implementation has the lowest power draw available — taking just 1.7 μA current while running the BLE stack and with just 7.3 mA active receive peak current. It also manages to have excellent transmit/receive specs. The Bluetooth LE stack runs on the chip’s Cortex M0 core.
The STMicroelectronics team in Grenoble
The specification and design of this product was done by around 30 STMicroelectronics staff at two office locations in Catania, Italy and Grenoble, France. The team’s goal from the start was to design the smallest and lowest-power chip available. As with any project, there were a few roadblocks encountered, but all of them were smartly addressed — some with designs that resulted in several filed patents. The BlueNRG product was truly a multisite project that required frequent calls, meetings, and collaboration on both software and hardware subjects.
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