The K32W148 from NXP Semiconductors is a Three-Core Wireless MCU that supports IEEE 802.15.4 mesh network protocols, Matter over Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3. It is ideal for industrial, Air Conditioning (AC), building safety, building security, heat metering, access management, smart home, home security, and surveillance applications.
The MCU supports 2-level FSK, GFSK, MSK, and GMSK modulation schemes and has an on-chip balun with a single-ended bidirectional RF port. This AEC-Q100 Grade 2 qualified microcontroller has an Arm Cortex-M33 main core, with 1 MB on-board flash, 128 KB SRAM, and 8 KB code cache to improve performance and efficiency. It has an additional radio core, with 256 kB Flash and 88 kB SRAM, that offloads low-level radio operations from the application core, freeing resources and optimizing system-level current draw.
The K32W148 also has a dedicated CM3 radio core and an isolated EdgeLock secure enclave to support the application core. The EdgeLock secure enclave enables advanced security features such as key creation and storage, secure lifecycle management, secure boot, and cryptographic acceleration in a protected execution environment. It supports secure boot and debug along with both symmetric and asymmetric key encryption. This MCU has secure key generation, storage & management and supports flash access protection & optional encryption on-the-fly decryption using a PRINCE XEX block cipher mode.
This MCU requires a DC supply of 3.3 V, and consumes 18.7 mA of current in Tx mode and 4.7 mA of current in Rx mode. It includes a DC/DC converter supporting buck and bypass operating modes and an asynchronous DMA controller with per-channel access permissions (secure/non-secure). The microcontroller is available in a 48HVQFN package that measures 7 x 7 mm.
