The NINA-B50 Series from u-blox are Bluetooth 5.3 LE Modules with support for Thread, Zigbee, and Matter that have been developed for automotive applications. These modules provide a conducted output power of up to 10 dBm and have a maximum range of 1400 m. They are based on the NXP KW45 chipset and comprise of a powerful wireless MCU featuring Bluetooth LE 5.3, advanced security (e.g., NXP EdgeLock®, Arm® TrustZone®), and FlexCAN, CAN, CAN FD, and LIN bus interfaces. The modules require a DC supply of 1.71 to 3.60 V and consume 18.7 mA of current in Tx mode, 4.7 mA of current in Rx mode, and 1.5 μA of current in deep sleep mode.
The NINA-B50 Series modules have three cores: main core, radio core, and EdgeLock secure enclave. The main core is a powerful Arm Cortex-M33 which allows the implementation of advanced applications with the MCUXpresso SDK. The dedicated radio core has its own flash and RAM which frees up resources for the main application and provides optimized current consumption. This can be used to improve system-level power consumption, letting other systems sleep when not in use, such as cellular or full systems in keyless entry systems. The third core is the isolated EdgeLock secure enclave, with advanced security features including secure boot, debug, over-the-air updates, root-of-trust, hardware cryptography, on-the-go flash encryption, and Arm TrustZone secure execution environment.
These modules either have an internal PCB antenna providing high performance and an extensive range or a module pin for an external antenna. They are available in surface-mount packages that measure 10.0 x 15.0 x 2.4 mm and is suitable for automotive applications such as keyless entry, battery management, LED-light control, sensor hub, or tachograph and also for industrial and smart home applications such as home automation (lighting, access control) as well as micro-mobility (e-bikes), power tools, or mobile robotics (lawn mowers).
