Beijing, China – January 8, 2020 – Silicon Labs (also known as Silicon Labs, NASDAQ: SLAB) announces a new Bluetooth system-on-chip (SoC) solution that combines market-leading security, wireless performance, Energy efficiency, software tools and protocol stacks to meet market demands for high-volume, battery-powered IoT products. Its EFR32BG22 (BG22) SoC extends Silicon Labs’ existing secure, ultra-low-power Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform and provides developers with an optimized Bluetooth connectivity solution that supports the new Bluetooth 5.2 specification, Bluetooth direction finding and Bluetooth Mesh.

According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), total annual shipments of Bluetooth devices will increase by 26% by 2023 (from 4 billion in 2019 to 5.4 billion), and 90% of Bluetooth devices are Bluetooth enabled Low Energy. Secure connectivity and extremely low power consumption will be essential requirements for these IoT devices. Silicon Labs designed the BG22 SoC to meet these requirements, as well as the billions of Bluetooth IoT devices that will continue to grow in the coming years.

The BG22 family combines best-in-class ultra-low transmit and receive current (3.6 mA at 0 dBm transmit; 2.6 mA receive) with a high-performance, low-power M33 core (operating current 27 µA/MHz; sleep current 1.2 µA), offering industry-leading energy efficiency that extends the life of coin cells to ten years. Target applications include Bluetooth Mesh low energy nodes, smart door locks, personal healthcare and fitness devices. Applications such as asset tracking tags, beacons and indoor navigation will also benefit from the SoC’s Bluetooth Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) capabilities and positioning accuracy within 1 meter.

The new portfolio offers a choice of three Bluetooth SoC products designed to meet the price/performance requirements of smart home, consumer, commercial and industrial IoT applications, including those requiring years of battery life.

EFR32BG22C112 SoC for high-volume, cost-sensitive applications, supporting 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps Bluetooth PHY transmission, 38.4 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core, 18 GPIOs and 352 KB flash, 0 dBm transmit power and industry-leading -99 dBm Receive sensitivity (1M PHY).

EFR32BG22C222 SoC is suitable for applications requiring more computing power (with 76.8 MHz M33 core), more I/O (26 GPIOs) and higher transmit power (+6 dBm).

The EFR32BG22C224 SoC provides IQ sampling capability for direction finding applications, and supports 125 KB and 500 KB Bluetooth Low Energy Coded PHYs that increase receive sensitivity to -106 dBm. The SoC also increases the operating temperature to +125°C and expands the flash memory to 512 KB to support applications requiring direction finding capabilities or a Bluetooth low energy mesh node.

Matt Johnson, senior vice president and general manager of IoT products at Silicon Labs, said: “As a leader in low-power wireless technology for the Internet of Things, we have greatly enhanced our service to existing and growing Bluetooth markets. Our secure Bluetooth solutions Enables our customers to reduce BOM cost, power consumption and time-to-market. We were the first to market with Bluetooth Mesh and Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding, and we continue to lead the market with innovations including Bluetooth 5.2. Our The new BG22 SoC enables developers to achieve the right balance of functionality, security and performance at a low cost, helping to drive the adoption of Bluetooth in a wide variety of IoT products.”

Silicon Labs provides an optimized level of security with a cost-effective Bluetooth SoC solution. One of the toughest challenges IoT developers face today is ensuring that connected devices run only true trusted firmware, and the BG22 SoC is secured by Silicon Labs’ Root of Trust and Secure Loader The Secure Boot function meets this requirement simply and efficiently. SoCs support comprehensive failure analysis by allowing developers to debug problems without erasing the flash, since software itself may also be a source of problems. Developers can do this with Silicon Labs’ Secure Debug with lock/unlock encryption.

Price and Availability

The EFR32BG22 SoC is available in a 5 mm x 5 mm QFN40 package, a 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32 package and an ultra-thin 0.3 mm x 4 mm x 4 mm TQFN32 package and is scheduled to be released in March. The pricing strategy of the EFR32BG22 SoC enables the implementation of cost-effective Bluetooth 5.2 applications with volume prices as low as $0.52. The EFR32BG22 SoC starter development kit and Thunderboard EFR32BG22 evaluation kit are also scheduled to be available in March, with kits starting at $19.99.

Silicon Labs will demonstrate the low-power direction finding capabilities of the EFR32BG22 family at the Venetian Sands Expo in Las Vegas from January 7-10, 2020, during CES.