NXT-ID selects Nordic's nRF52832 SoC for its 'IoT Stamp' module providing low-power wireless connectivity

Nordic Semiconductor announces that Melbourne, FL-based security technology company, NXT-ID, has selected Nordic's nRF52832 Bluetooth low energy System-on-Chip (SoC) to provide Bluetooth low energy and Near Field Communication (NFC) wireless connectivity for its 'IoT Stamp' module. The module is designed for integration into wearables, portable devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Drop-in solution

The IoT Stamp is said to have the smallest footprint of any combined Bluetooth low energy and NFC module on the market, suitable for ultra-compact, low energy applications, for example smartcards or smartwatches. The module is designed as a 'drop-in' solution to help manufacturers with little or no RF engineering expertise reduce development time and speed time-to-market for connected products. The module supports a range of personalised services including identity management, multifactor biometric authentication, and payment methods including Bluetooth low energy, NFC, and dynamic magnetic stripe.

With a 10mAh battery the IoT Stamp can last for several months prior to recharge, thanks to the ultra-low power operating characteristics of the nRF52832 SoC, as well as other low power techniques including motion activation, a low power touch control user interface, and patent pending ultra-low power 'buttonless' wake-up technology.

Nordic nRF52832 features

Nordic's nRF52832 Bluetooth low energy SoC, a member of Nordic's sixth generation of ultra-low power (ULP) wireless connectivity solutions, has been engineered to minimise power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio's 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with Nordic's nRF51 Series SoCs. The result is a Bluetooth low energy solution which offers 90 CoreMark/mA, up to twice as power efficient as competing devices.

The nRF52832 SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit ARM Cortex M4F processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (fully compatible with Bluetooth 4.2, ANT and proprietary 2.4GHz RF software) featuring -96dB RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory, 64kB RAM, and an NFC-A tag for "Touch-to-Pair" operations. When launched, the SoC was the world's highest performance single-chip Bluetooth low energy solution, delivering up to 60 percent more generic processing power, offering 10 times the Floating Point performance, and twice the DSP performance compared to competing solutions.

Bluetooth low energy solution

"We selected Nordic's nRF52832 SoC because it provided us with both a Bluetooth low energy and NFC solution on a single chip, giving us a smaller footprint as well as the low power consumption we required," says David Tunnell, NXT-ID CTO and Executive VP. "Moreover, Nordic's technical support proved outstanding and the company's engineers were always very responsive."

NXT-ID has already partnered with travel and lifestyle community membership vendor WorldVentures to develop the flye smartcard which will be one of the first applications of the nRF52832-powered NXT-ID IoT Stamp. The flye smartcard can be used by WorldVentures' 500,000 worldwide members for electronic payment, rewards, and other purposes. Users can load up to ten records-for example credit, debit, ID, and loyalty cards-on the 'all-in-one' smartcard.