Nordic’s nRF52840 multiprotocol SoC & Zigbee software solution is now Zigbee certified and is compliant with the current Zigbee PRO (R21) and Green Power proxy specification. This means Nordic customers can now build and ship commercial Zigbee 3.0 products by using the nRF52840 together with the nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee. And, as with Nordic’s other mesh solutions, concurrent Zigbee and Bluetooth 5/Bluetooth Low Energy operation is also supported.
During the Zigbee Compliance certification process using the latest nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee and its integrated S140 v6.1 SoftDevice (or ‘stack’), the nRF52840 was concurrently connected to a Bluetooth 5 / Bluetooth Low Energy network the entire time. The concurrent Zigbee and Bluetooth 5 / Bluetooth Low Energy operation allows Zigbee networks to benefit from all the features of a Bluetooth network including connecting to smartphones. This would allow performing firmware upgrades, for example, or control the Zigbee network directly from a smartphone or even remotely.
nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee
The nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee is a common SDK for Nordic's Thread and Zigbee solutions, intended to be used as a foundation for any Zigbee or Thread product development. The SDK takes a full advantage of multi-protocol capabilities of nRF52840 SoC by offering support for concurrent Thread/Zigbee and Bluetooth Low Energy operation. The SDK includes a broad selection of drivers, libraries, examples for peripherals and SoftDevice, for the nRF52840. The nRF52840 SoC and the nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee makes a powerful solution for battery powered sensor devices in the smart home, with its concurrent Thread/Zigbee and Bluetooth low energy support. It enables new use cases by combining the different wireless technologies.
nRF52840
The nRF52840 System-on-Chip (SoC) is a Bluetooth 5 (Bluetooth low energy), IEEE 802.15.4, ANT+ and 2.4GHz proprietary wireless connectivity solution. The SoC has been engineered to build on the mature architecture of the existing nRF52 Series to support complex Bluetooth low energy and other low-power wireless applications that were previously not possible with a single-chip solution. Certification to the Bluetooth 5 specification, coupled with increased maximum output power, enables the nRF52840 SoC to deliver Bluetooth low energy wireless connectivity with up to 4x the range or 2x the raw data bandwidth (2Mbps) compared with the Bluetooth low energy implementation of Bluetooth 4.2.
Click here to learn more about the nRF52840 System-on-Chip (SoC).
