Nordic unveils its first Wi-Fi chip

Nordic Semiconductor has entered the Wi-Fi wireless IoT market with the introduction of the nRF7002 Wi-Fi chip. The new ultra-low-power, dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) Wi-Fi 6 companion IC is designed to provide seamless Wi-Fi connectivity when used with a host device.

(Source: Nordic Semiconductor)

With the introduction, Nordic Semiconductor now offers solutions for three popular wireless IoT technologies: Bluetooth, cellular IoT, and Wi-Fi. The new product launch follows Nordic’s 2020 acquisition of Imagination Technologies’ Wi-Fi development team.

The nRF7002 provides seamless Wi-Fi connectivity and Wi-Fi-based location (SSID sniffing of local Wi-Fi hubs) with Nordic’s existing products, including the nRF52 and nRF53 Series multiprotocol systems-on-chip (SoCs), and nRF91 series cellular IoT systems-in-package (SiPs). It also can be used with non-Nordic host devices.

The Wi-Fi 6 companion chip offers a 20-MHz channel bandwidth, 86 Mbits/s PHY throughout/64 QAM (MCS7), one spatial stream, and OFDMA for the downlink/uplink. Other key features include SPI/QSPI support, target wake time (TWS), and BSS coloring. The device complies with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax.

By adding Wi-Fi to its product portfolio Nordic supports all three wireless protocols used in the Matter connectivity protocol for smart homes. These include Bluetooth LE for commissioning, Thread for low power mesh networking, and Wi-Fi for high-speed wireless applications. Leading industry players, such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung, support the Matter protocol.

Nordic’s CTO/EVP of R&D and strategy, Svein-Egil Nielsen said, “. . . developing Nordic-based Wi-Fi 6 applications will be as simple as developing any other Nordic wireless IoT application, including using the same development tools and nRF Connect SDK.”

The nRF7002, housed in a 6 × 6-mm QFN package, is sampling now. Development kits will be available. The new product will be featured at the upcoming Nordic Tech Tour, spanning 48 cities in North America and EMEA.