The WL72917_8M from SparkLAN is a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.4 A-IoT Module that is designed to provide reliable wireless connectivity and enhanced energy efficiency for the next-generation A-IoT applications. It is powered by Silicon Labs’ chipset and consists of an ARM Cortex-M4F core running at up to 180 MHz, an AI/ML hardware acceleration, 672 KB SRAM, 16 MB external PSRAM, and an 8 MB flash memory. This module also includes a power management unit, advanced security, baseband signal processing, mixed-signal peripherals, analog front-end, calibration eFuse, 2.4 GHz RF transceiver, and a power amplifier. It delivers a data rate of 1 Mbps (BLE), 2 Mbps (enhanced BLE, long-range BLE (S8)), and 500 kbps (BLE long-range (S2)).
The WL72917_8M module’s AI/ML hardware accelerator can deliver faster machine learning inference with real and complex vector computations at low power consumption than a non-accelerated microcontroller. It includes multiple embedded wireless networking stacks such as Wi-Fi, BLE, and Matter-over-Wi-Fi, and the Wi-Fi stack supports three modes, which are, embedded Client mode, Wi-Fi SoftAP mode, and an STA concurrent mode. This module uses several modulation schemes such as DSSS, OFDM, OFDMA, and GFSK. It also has security features with secure boot and hardware encryption accelerators for AES, RSA, and ECC. This module can be controlled using SDIO, USB, UART, and SPI interfaces.
The WL72917_8M has a receive sensitivity of -95 dBm. It requires a DC supply from 1.75 to 3.63 V and consumes very low power with the help of an integrated multi-stage power management system. This RoHS-compliant module is available in a surface-mount package that measures 17.00 x 17.00 x 2.05 mm and has U.FL connectors. It is ideal for smart homes, industrial automation, and smart city applications.
