World’s Smallest BLE Chip

Dialog is in production of what it claims to be the world’s smallest and most power-efficient Bluetooth 5.1 SoC.

The chip, known as SmartBond TINY or DA14531, is designed to lower the costs of adding BLE functionality to an application to $0.50 in high volumes.

The chip aims to make it possible to extend wireless connectivity to applications where it would have previously been prohibitive in terms of size, power or cost, especially those within the growing connected medical field.

It  will help facilitate connectivity for inhalers, medicine dispensers, weight scales, thermometers, glucose meters and more.

The chip  comes in packages as small as 2.0 x 1.7 mm.

The device requires six external passives, a single clock source and a power supply to make a complete Bluetooth low energy system.

For developers, this means the device fits most designs including as electronic styluses, shelf labels, beacons or active RFID tags for asset tracking.

It is also for applications that require provisioning such as cameras, printers and wireless routers.

It can be used in remote controls as a replacement for infrared (IR) or for other applications such as toys, keyboards or smart credit and banking cards.

The chip is based on a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0+ with integrated memories and a complete set of analog and digital peripherals, delivering a record score of 18300 on the latest IoTMark-BLE, the EEMBC benchmark for IoT connectivity.

Its architecture and resources allow it to be used as a standalone wireless microcontroller or as an RF data pipe extension for designs with existing microcontrollers.

The SmartBond TINY module, leveraging the capabilities of the main DA14531 chip, helps customers to leverage the new SoC as a part of their product development, instead of having to certify their platforms themselves, thereby saving time, development efforts and costs.

The module is also designed to balance running a high number of applications while keeping cost additions to the overall system as low as possible.

Breaking through the $1 target for a BLE module lowers the threshold for adding SmartBond TINY to a system and driving a multitude of applications, helping fuel a new generation of IoT-enabled devices.

SmartBond TINY and the module use just half of the energy of their predecessors, the DA14580 and DA14580-based module.

The DA14531’s integrated DC-DC converter enables a wide operating voltage (1.1 to 3.3V) and can derive power directly from environmentally-friendly, disposable silver oxide, zinc air or printable batteries required for high-volume applications, such as connected injectors, glucose monitors and smart patches.