MCU with IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE target mutiple IoT apps

NXP semiconductors’ new Kinetis KW41Z wireless microcontroller trigger the trend of using multi-protocol wireless MCUs in the embedded IoT market. The use of IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth low energy v4.2 is becoming essential for the latest IoT applications such as smart homes, building automation, medical electronics, wearable devices and to some extent in devices such as computer keyboards, mouse, gaming controllers. It can even be extended to security systems which can be part of your smart home systems. IEEE 802.15.4 standard is the latest physical layer and media access control specifications for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs). IEEE 802.15 is referred as basis for the ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, MiWi, and Thread short range wireless data communication specs. There are a wide range of applications where both LR-WPAN and Bluetooth are required. This device KW41Z Kinetis microcontrollers from NXP semiconductors addresses this requirement by having both the transceivers in a single chip. The Bluetooth part of the IP is from India based design service company Mindtree. Mindtree’s BlueLitE, Bluetooth Smart Semiconductor IP is incorporated into this latest Kinetis KW41Z MCU. BlueLitE from Mindtree is designed to take lesser footprint and lesser power consumption. BlueLitE supports optional features of the of the Bluetooth low energy specifications m...