Cypress samples two low-power Bluetooth MCUs for mesh networking

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is sampling two low-power, dual-mode Bluetooth 5.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) microcontrollers (MCUs) that include support for Bluetooth mesh connections. The new CYW20819 and CYW20820 MCUs each provide simultaneous Bluetooth 5.0 audio and BLE connections that enable voice and audio for battery-powered wearables such as fitness bands, health monitoring devices, and voice remotes. Other applications include smartphones, tablets, and voice-controlled home assistants.

The CYW20819 Bluetooth/BLE MCU can simultaneously maintain Serial Port Profile (SPP) protocol connections and Bluetooth mesh connections.

Key features include:

• Integrated Arm Cortex-M4 up to 96 MHz
• 256-KB flash, 176-KB SRAM, and 1-MB ROM
• On-chip buck regulator to reduce power consumption for both classic and low-energy Bluetooth
• Complete remote control and HID peripheral I/O: UART × 2, ADC/PWMs/ Key-scan, I² C × 2, SPI × 2 (one dual/quad SPI), quadrature decoder, analog microphone interface, and up to 40 GPIOs
• AES128 (hardware-accelerated) and RSA2048 bit encryption
• Capability to lock down on-chip flash for security
• Bluetooth LE Tx power up to +4 dBm

The CYW20820 offers the same features and integrates a power amplifier with up to 10-dBm output power for long-range applications up to 400 meters and whole-home coverage, said Cypress.

The Arm Cortex-M4 core delivers 60% lower active power for connected 200-ms beacons compared to current solutions — delivering up to 123 days of battery life from a CR2032 coin-cell battery. Applications include wearables, sensors, remote controls, smart home lighting, and medical devices. They are forward- and backward-compatible for dual-mode mouse and keyboard HID applications.

Bluetooth mesh networking technology, together with the integrated power amplifier (PA) in the CYW20820, enables devices within a network to communicate with each other over long ranges and allows users to control their devices via apps on smartphones, tablets, and smart speakers.

Support tools include Cypress’s ModusToolbox development tools , which provide sample code and applications for Bluetooth mesh and sensor kits. The Bluetooth solutions share a common Bluetooth stack and are supported in the latest version of Cypress’s Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) software development kit (SDK) in the ModusToolbox suite. Visit www.cypress.com/wireless for more information.

A CYW20819-based certified Bluetooth module (CYBT-213043-02) and two evaluation kits can be pre-ordered:

• The Cypress CYW20819EVB-02 Evaluation Kit for evaluation and development with the CYW20819 MCU will be available in March 2019.
• The Cypress Mesh Evaluation Kit (CYBT-213043-MESH), featuring a Bluetooth 5.0-qualified and regulatory-certified module based on the CYW20819 MCU for development of Bluetooth mesh applications, will be available in the second quarter of 2019.