Bluetooth Mesh

Complete solution

For developing your Bluetooth Mesh product

Mesh

If you are developing a Bluetooth Mesh product it is wise to evaluate what the #1 supplier of Bluetooth Low Energy System-on-Chips (SoCs) offers, as Bluetooth Mesh is built on top of Bluetooth LE.

We offer a broad portfolio of SoCs supporting Bluetooth Mesh. The SoCs have different memory sizes and capabilities, enabling you to select the perfect match for your product's requirements. Complementing our SoCs, we offer development hardware, software, and tools to make it easy for you to build your product, while also reducing time-to-market. We offer a qualified Bluetooth Mesh stack with all mandatory and selected optional features supported, in addition to a wide range of application models and samples for lighting and sensor networks. Use this as a foundation to build on top of. We also offer a mobile app, nRF Mesh, available as free source code for both iOS and Android. This is a great starting point for your own app. The app can be used to provision, configure, and control Mesh nodes in evaluation and test.

We offer our excellent technical support to anyone developing a Bluetooth Mesh product with one of our SoCs. We guide you through the whole product development process.

Explore our Bluetooth Mesh solutions below!

Advanced Bluetooth Mesh SoCs

Four of the seven SoCs in the nRF52 Series support Bluetooth Mesh. All four integrate a powerful yet efficient 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 CPU. Flash memory size ranges from 256 KB to 1024 KB while RAM size ranges from 32 KB to 256 KB. The nRF52 Series offers simpler cost-effective options and highly advanced options, all with ultra-low power consumption. The nRF52 Series is truly the ideal platform for basing a product portfolio upon. The similar hardware and software architecture results in excellent software portability, increasing software reusability and lowering time-to-market and development cost.

The nRF5340 SoC is our Bluetooth Low Energy flagship. It is the world’s first wireless SoC with two Arm® Cortex®-M33 processors. The combination of two flexible processors, up to 105 °C operating temperature and advanced security features make it the perfect choice for Bluetooth Mesh applications such as professional lighting, sensor networks, and asset tracking. The nRF5340 is an all-in-one SoC, including a superset of the most prominent nRF52 Series features. Features like Bluetooth 5.4, high-speed SPI, QSPI, USB, and more, are combined with more performance, memory, and integration, while minimizing current consumption. It also offers security features such as trusted execution, root-of-trust, and secure key storage.

The nRF52 and nRF53 Series are all-flash based SoCs. Flash memory brings complete flexibility and upgradability to your products. They can be re-programmed in the factory or in the field with over-the-air device firmware upgrades (OTA DFU). This enables product updates and feature additions any time, anywhere.

Bluetooth Mesh SoCs

nRF53 Series

nRF5340 SoC

Dual-core Bluetooth 5.4 SoC supporting Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread and Zigbee

128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 CPU with
1 MB Flash + 512 KB RAM
64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 CPU with
256 KB Flash + 64 KB RAM
Bluetooth Low Energy
Bluetooth Direction Finding
Bluetooth mesh
Thread, Zigbee
ANT
NFC
Advanced security
USB, QSPI, HS-SPI
105 °C extended operating temperature
1.7-5.5 V supply voltage range

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Bluetooth Mesh SoCs comparison


  nRF5340   nRF52840
 nRF52833 nRF52832  nRF52820 
 CPU  128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
 +
 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33		  64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU  64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU  64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU  64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4
Flash  1 MB
 +
 256 KB		  1 MB  512 KB  512/256 KB  256 KB
 RAM  512 KB
 +
 64 KB		  256 KB  128 KB  64/32 KB  32 KB
 Arm TrustZone  Yes  Yes      
 Arm CryptoCell   312  310      
 Root-of-Trust  Yes  Yes      
 Secure key storage  Yes        
 High-Speed SPI  Yes  Yes  Yes
 
 TWI/SPI/UART  4xTWI/SPI/UART +TWI/SPI/UART  2xTWI/SPI, SPI, 2xUART  2xTWI/SPI, SPI, 2xUART  2xTWI/SPI, SPI, 2xUART  2xTWI/SPI, UART
 QSPI  Yes  Yes      
 USB  Yes  Yes  Yes    Yes
 PWM, PDM, I2S  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  
 ADC, Comparator  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  COMP
 Operating temperature  -40 to 105 °C  -40 to 85 °C  -40 to 105 °C  -40 to 85 °C  -40 to 105 °C
 Supply voltage range  1.7 to 5.5 V  1.7 to 5.5 V  1.7 to 5.5 V  1.7 to 3.6 V  1.7 to 5.5 V
 Packages  7x7 mm aQFN94
 (48 GPIOs)
 4.4x4.0 mm WLCSP95
 (48 GPIOs)
  7x7 mm aQFN73
 (48 GPIOs)
 3.5x3.6 mm WLCSP94
 (48 GPIOs)		  7x7 mm aQFN73
 (42 GPIOs)
 5x5 mm QFN40
 (18 GPIOs)
 3.2x3.2 mm WLCSP
 (42 GPIOs)		  6x6 mm QFN48
 (32 GPIOs)
 3.0x3.2 mm WLCSP50
 (32 GPIOs)		  5x5 mm QFN40 (18 GPIOs)

Compatible PMIC and RF FEM options

nPM1300 PMIC

Power Management IC (PMIC) with unique system management features

The nPM1300 is designed to provide highly efficient power regulation for Nordic’s nRF52 and nRF53 Series, as well as the nRF54L and nRF54H Series wireless multiprotocol Systems-on-Chip (SoC). The PMIC is also suitable for battery charging for applications based on the nRF91 Series systems-in-package (SiPs) for cellular IoT, by using the PMIC’s unregulated output to power the SiP's internal buck regulators.

Devices using the nPM1300 and a compatible SoC or SiP also get access to the Nordic Fuel Gauge, a highly accurate, ultra-low-power way of estimating state-of-charge of rechargeable batteries. 

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nPM1100 PMIC

Ultra-small form-factor Power Management IC (PMIC) for charging batteries and power delivery

The nPM1100 is a dedicated power management IC (PMIC) with dual-mode configurable buck regulator and integrated battery charger. It is designed as a complementary component to Nordic’s nRF52® Series and nRF53® Series System-on-Chips (SoCs) to ensure reliable power delivery and stable operation, whilst maximizing battery life through high efficiency and low quiescent currents. It can also be used as a generic PMIC device for any other suitable application. Its extremely compact form factor makes it ideal for advanced wearables, connected medical devices, and other size constrained applications. PCB area usage can be as low as 23 mm2.
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nRF21540 SoC nRF21540 RF FEM

RF front-end module (FEM) for Bluetooth® Low Energy, Bluetooth® mesh, 2.4 GHz proprietary and Thread and Zigbee

Supports Bluetooth® Low Energy, Bluetooth® mesh, Thread and Zigbee (802.15.4) and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols

Tunable output power in small increments up to +21 dBm

13 dB RX gain with 2.7 dB noise figure

Two antenna ports for antenna diversity

TX gain control via I/Os, SPI, or a combination

-40 °C to 105 °C extended operating temperature range

1.7 to 3.6 V supply range

4x4 mm QFN16 package

Between 6.3-10x range extension when combined with an nRF52 or nRF53 Series SoC

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Concurrent Bluetooth Mesh and Bluetooth LE

All Bluetooth Mesh SoCs can run both Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Mesh concurrently. The radio time is time sliced and shared between the protocols. The scheduling is autonomous and connections are maintained. Leverage the interoperability of our Bluetooth LE stack and let a Bluetooth LE device, such as a smartphone, bridge into the Bluetooth Mesh network. The smartphone can then provision/commission in new nodes and interact with the mesh network.