Silicon Labs EFR32BG MCU Series SOC supports multi-protocol wireless connectivity

[Introduction]: "Smart Lighting" has shown tremendous market explosiveness in the current IoT application field. Both home and business areas, combined with indoor positioning capabilities, have subverted the traditional lighting market, and developers and companies have seen huge business opportunities. In addition, the output value of smart lighting has increased year by year, and more and more people in the industry have invested in this market.

"Smart Lighting" has shown tremendous market explosiveness in the current IoT application field. Both home and business areas, combined with indoor positioning capabilities, have subverted the traditional lighting market, and developers and companies have seen huge business opportunities. In addition, the output value of intelligent lighting has increased year by year, and more and more people in the industry have invested in this market.

In recent years, Silicon Labs has continued to develop in the field of smart lighting, and has achieved remarkable results in home and building automation. In order to gain a deeper understanding of Silicon Labs' product solutions for smart lighting, Electronic Enthusiasts held a Smart Lighting Summit on May 24, 2018 . At this event, we took the head of Silicon Labs' IoT business to the site to discuss the wireless technology that is most suitable for smart lighting, home and building, and share the advantages of running Zigbee and Bluetooth low energy on a single device.

Let's take a look at the EFR32BG MCU series SOC products previously released by Silicon Labs.

The EFR32BG12 and EFR32BG13 Blue Gecko SoCs combine a high performance 32-bit 40 MHz ARM® Cortex®-M4 core with 2.4 GHz and sub-1 GHz radio transceivers. The EFR32BG12 and EFR32BG13 Blue Gecko SoCs have a larger memory capacity than previous generations of Blue Gecko devices.

The EFR32BG12 provides 1 MB of flash and 256 KB of RAM, while the EFR32BG13 offers 512 KB of flash and 64 KB of RAM. This significant memory expansion helps develop feature-rich, complex Internet of Things (IoT) applications that support multiple protocol stacks, real-time operating systems such as Micrium OS, backup images of devices, and field upgrades to extend Wireless (OTA) updates for the life of IoT products.

The EFR32BG12 and EFR32BG13 Blue Gecko SoCs feature a 2 Mbps Bluetooth PHY that provides adequate throughput for applications running the Bluetooth 5 compatible protocol stack. Compared with Bluetooth 4, the Bluetooth 5 standard has a transmission distance of 4 times, a speed of 2 times, a broadcast performance of 8 times, and enhanced coexistence with other wireless IoT protocols. The SoCs also support a powerful set of peripherals including a hardware crypto accelerator, 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a 12-channel peripheral reflection system, and various communication interfaces. In addition, the SoCs offer multiple security options, including AES with 128-bit or 256-bit keys, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), SHA-1, and SHA-224/256.

The EFR32BG12 and EFR32BG13 Blue Gecko SoCs also include an on-chip oscillator, eliminating the need for off-chip 32 KHz crystals typically required for low-power Bluetooth devices. This integrated high-precision low-frequency resistive-capacitor (PLFRCO) replaces 32kHz crystals for high-volume product designs, helping developers save BOM costs while meeting the low-power Bluetooth sleep clock accuracy specification. PLFRCO ensures that the device provides a robust, reliable, low-power Bluetooth connection over the entire operating temperature range.

This shows that the EFR32BG12 and EFR32BG13 Blue Gecko SoC are ideal for IoT devices, fitness products, home and building automation, and Bluetooth5 networks for smart meters.

Silicon Labs is a leading provider of silicon, software and system solutions for the Internet, Internet infrastructure, industrial automation, consumer electronics and automotive markets. The company aims to solve the challenges of the electronics industry, bringing significant advantages to customers in terms of performance, energy efficiency, connectivity and minimal design. Silicon Labs has a world-class engineering team with superior software and mixed-signal design experience, providing designers with the tools and technology they need to quickly and easily turn their initial ideas into the final product.