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Silicon Labs News
SILICON LABS ANNOUNCES NEW SOC AND MCU FOR SMALL FORM-FACTOR DEVICES
The xG27 family of Bluetooth systems on chips (SoCs) and the BB50 microcontroller unit (MCU) are ideal for the smallest form factor IoT devices.
Silicon Labs recently announced two new integrated circuit families designed for small form factor IoT devices: the xG27 family of Bluetooth SoCs and the BB50 MCU.
Designed for the smallest IoT devices, the xG27 and BB50 families range in size from 2 mm-squared, about the width of a #2 pencil lead, to 5 mm-squared, less than the width of a standard #2 pencil. These offer IoT device designers energy efficiency, high performance, trusted security, and wireless connectivity in the case of the xG27 family. This makes the xG27 SoC family and BB50 MCU ideal for tiny, battery-optimized devices like connected medical devices, wearables, asset monitoring tags, smart sensors, simple consumer electronics like toothbrushes and toys, and more.
xG27 SoC connects one of the world's smallest wearable devices
The new xG27 family of SoCs comprises the BG27, for Bluetooth connectivity, and the MG27, supporting Zigbee and other proprietary protocols. Built around the ARM Cortex M33 processor, the BG27 and MG27 share several common features designed to make them the ideal SoC for small form-factor devices, including:
- Wafer-level Chip Scale Packaging as small as 2.3 mm x 2.6 mm, ideal for compact and unobtrusive devices like medical patches, continuous glucose monitors, wearable electrocardiograms, and asset tags in various settings like retail and agriculture
- Integrated DCDC Boost that can allow the devices to operate on batteries as low as 0.8 V, thereby reducing their devices' size, form factor, and cost
- Integrated Coulomb Counter that enables battery level monitoring to avoid battery depletion during the use of applications, improving user experience and product safety
- Advanced security with Silicon Labs Secure Vault with Virtual Security Engine (VSE) for secure boot and debug hardened against glitch attacks, tamper protection, and additional features designed to protect the device and its users' data from local and remote cyber threats
- Shelf Mode that reduces energy use to less than 20 nano amperes so that devices can be transported and stocked on shelves while maintaining nearly full battery life for the end-user
Lura Health, a medical device manufacturer and participant in the Alpha program for BG27, has already selected the new SoC to form the basis of its new in-development smart wearable. Lura Health uses the BG27 SoC to create a sensor smaller than a tooth to collect salivary data. With the device, dentists and other clinicians can collect important data from saliva, which is used to test for over 1,000 health conditions.
New BB50 8-bit MCUs increase design flexibility while reducing cost and complexity
While the IoT is built around connectivity, many devices do not need to be connected, and there are non-connected versions of connected devices.
While, in theory, this seems like a simple problem to solve, it can often lead to inventory and SKU sprawl, with the non-connected version of a product being designed differently than the connected version. Add in different cosmetic effects like color or if the outer material is metal or plastic, and very quickly, management of inventory and various designs becomes costly and complex.
The new BB50 MCU and the larger BB5x MCU family help address these challenges with the following:
New BB50 8-bit MCUs increase design flexibility while reducing cost and complexity
While the IoT is built around connectivity, many devices do not need to be connected, and there are non-connected versions of connected devices.
While, in theory, this seems like a simple problem to solve, it can often lead to inventory and SKU sprawl, with the non-connected version of a product being designed differently than the connected version. Add in different cosmetic effects like color or if the outer material is metal or plastic, and very quickly, management of inventory and various designs becomes costly and complex.
The new BB50 MCU and the larger BB5x MCU family help address these challenges with the following:
- Common tools and software for 8-bit and 32-bit, like Silicon Labs Simplicity Studio and a fully-featured 8-bit compiler
- A high-performance core optimized for a large number of single-cycle instructions to improve operating efficiency
- Wide operating voltages and low-power modes for battery applications to improve energy efficiency for a large variety of battery sizes
- Various packaging options ranging from 2 mm-squared to 5 mm-squared to optimize for size needs
- Hundreds of firmware examples that allow customers to easily add functionality to an existing product with little or no additional firmware development effort
For more information, visit the BB50 and BB5x MCU family product pages.
