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Market's smallest bluetooth 4.2 SoC packs 32 bit CPU and can work standalone

Date: 08/11/2016
The Switzerland based EM Microelectronic has launched a very small sized Bluetooth SoC targeting products such as IoT, wearable and smart electronics. The EM9304 can be used as a standard IC or connected to other devices through an interface. It has an on chip 32-bit processor with a floating-point-unit (FPU) and also on-chip Non Volatile Memory.

The EM9304 can be connected to any other standard MCU or custom processor where just a simple and easy-to-implement BLE add-on function is required.

EM Microelectronic claims EM9304 is the smallest device available in the market in this category. The EM9304 integrates on-chip power management system with automatic configuration for 1.5V or 3V batteries. It is also compatible with 1.5V MCUs such as ultra-low-power watch microprocessors from EM's own product portfolio or with standard 3V microprocessors from many other manufacturers. The EM9304 has 128kB OTP for applications and 48kB RAM for support application development, and up to 20kB RAM for retention data RAM.

"EM has been at the forefront of integrated BLE solutions for many years, with the well-established EM9301 BLE controller and the EMBC0x beacons which were among the first on the market" says Michel Willemin, CEO of EM Microelectronic Marin. He adds, "The EM9304 adds flexibility and outstanding performance in a tiny chip, thereby reinforcing EM's portfolio of low-power integrated solutions like the EM850x Energy Harvesting chips and the sensor fusion co-processing ICs which are paving the way to concrete IoT applications".

The company also provides in the ROM a certified Bluetooth v4.2 stack with proprietary Application Controller Interface (ACI) and Link layer with a Host Controller Interface (HCI). The device supports security connections, extended packet length, and multiple connections. By utilizing efficient scheduler and memory manager the current consumption is reduced for all the modes. Firmware can be updated over-the-air (FOTA) in this IC so that updating will be easier and the system need not be stopped for updating itself.

For developers, the company is offering both hardware and software development kits which can work with commercially available tools with an IDE and debugger. These devices are available in sample quantities in QFN package and full production volumes are expected in early 2017.

EM Microelectronics is also providing PCB design and FCC/CE certification support to its customers.

To know more about this IC EM9304 visit the website: www.emmicroelectronic.com/products/wireless-rf/standard-protocols/em9304