Nordic Semiconductor ASA has announced that Wireless-Tag Technology has selected Nordic's nRF51822 Bluetooth smart system-on-chip, or SoC, for its WT51822-S4AT module, designed for use in home appliance, intelligent hardware, and industrial applications.Wireless-Tag Technology says the 18.5 by 9.1 by 2mm module is one of the smallest package sizes available, and offers high performance at competitive cost. RF link reliability is improved compared to previous generations of the product and the module offers up to 50m range. The module has achieved European CE and US FCC certification.

While the nRF51822 incorporates a powerful 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 processor, which can run both the Bluetooth v4.0 (and later versions) RF protocol software and the customer's application code, the module can also be connected to an external processor or microcontroller via a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) port. This is useful if the customer has coding expertise with non-ARM processors and wants to leverage that experience in new designs. Wireless-Tag Technology also offers an in-house design service for customers with limited RF expertise.

The module is targeted at space-restricted applications such as smartwatches and other wearables, and is also suitable for toys, intelligent industrial devices, and smart home products. Nordic's Bluetooth Smart technology ensures the module is interoperable with Bluetooth Smart Ready smartphones and tablets, enabling the module to send and receive data from a smartphone-based app. Nordic's nRF51822 is a powerful and flexible multiprotocol SoC ideally suited for Bluetooth Smart and 2.4GHz ultra low-power wireless applications.

The nRF51822 is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 CPU with 256kB/128kB flash and 32kB/16kB RAM. The embedded 2.4GHz transceiver is fully compliant with Bluetooth v4.2, the latest Bluetooth Smart specification. Nordic's nRF51822 SoC provides Bluetooth Smart wireless connectivity between the WT51822-S4AT module and both iOS- and Android-compatible Bluetooth Smart ready devices.