Bluetooth LE temperature data logger supports Moderna Covid-19 vaccine rollout

Shinyei Technology’s TempView employs Nordic nRF52810 SoC to monitor and report vaccine temperature during storage and distribution

Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Kobe, Japan-based Shinyei Technology, has selected Nordic’s nRF52810 Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) System-on-Chip (SoC) to provide the wireless connectivity for the ‘TempView GT002-T-DF’ temperature logging unit. The solution is being used in Japan for the rollout of the ‘Moderna’ (mRNA-1273) Covid-19 vaccine developed by Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. TempView monitors the Moderna vaccine to ensure it stays within temperature thresholds—within an environment of -20°C ± 5°C—during storage and domestic distribution.

Vaccine temperature logging

Designed to improve the reliability of vaccine transportation and logistics, TempView GT002-T-DF is a compact and lightweight data logger using an external temperature sensor. The device features two measurement modes—‘storage’ mode for storage management in buildings such as warehouses, and ‘transport’ mode for transport management such as inside a truck or container—suitable for monitoring and logging vaccine temperature throughout the distribution process from a wholesaler until it reaches the inoculation site of a medical institution.

Nordic’s Development Kit helped us shorten the evaluation time in the early stage of development because we didn’t have to build our own evaluation board

Mr. Hiro Isshiki, Shinyei Technology

Using the Bluetooth LE connectivity provided by the Nordic nRF52810 SoC-based Taiyo Yuden module, the temperature data is relayed from the device to a user’s Bluetooth 4.0 (and later) smartphone, from where the iOS and Android ‘TH View’ app automatically generates analytics reports and graphs of the transport/storage temperature measurement data. The companion app can also be used to remotely configure and control the device. In addition to the wireless connectivity, the Nordic nRF52810 SoC-powered Taiyo Yuden module uses the SoC’s 32-bit, 64MHz Arm® Cortex™ M4 processor to power TempView’s temperature data logging software.

TempView uses a CR2450 coin cell lithium battery to operate continuously for around 180 days in storage mode and around 14 days in transport mode (at 25°C) depending on the application, thanks in part to the ultra low power characteristics of the Nordic SoC. The nRF52810 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 4.6mA 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.

Nordic’s nRF52810 multiprotocol SoC combines the Arm Cortex processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, ANT™, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring reduced radio energy consumption, with 192kB Flash memory and 24kB RAM. The nRF52810 SoC is supplied with the latest version of Nordic’s S112 SoftDevice, Bluetooth 5-compliant RF protocol software. The S112 supports Bluetooth LE high-speed 2Mbps feature.

Superior RF performance

“We selected the Nordic nRF52810 SoC-based Taiyo Yuden module for TempView because the SoC’s size, cost, and RF performance enabled us to achieve the specifications required for a temperature logger for logistics,” says Mr. Hiro Isshiki, Measurement Instruments Division, Shinyei Technology.

“Nordic’s Development Kit helped us shorten the evaluation time in the early stage of development because we didn’t have to build our own evaluation board. As a result, we were able to develop TempView in a fraction of the time that would normally be required.”