STMicroelectronics has introduced its third-generation Bluetooth® System-on-Chip (SoC) for location-tracking and real-time positioning applications.

ST BlueNRG-LPS SoC 

The Blutooth 5.3 certified BlueNRG-LPS SoC performs excellent in precisely estimating movement and location with centimeter accuracy by determining the direction of a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal. Based on the specified technology such as angle-of-arrival (AoA) and angle-of departure (AoD), the SoC is able to serve variety of applications include indoor navigation, geofencing and asset tracking, as well as real-time location finding for tools, asset, and goods.

Source: STMicroelectronics

The application of BlueNRG-LPS SoC also include general-purpose wireless sensors, medical, keyless entry systems, remote controls,and smart remote metering. It comes with a program and data memories of 192KB eFlash and 24KB SRAM respectively for lightweight end products. Plus its streamlined architecture and I/O peripherals, it is ideal for cost-sensitive and high-volume applications. Besides, it integrated a high-efficiency step-down converter and protection circuitry to further simplified and reduces the required bill-of-material (BOM), and allows for a much cheaper two-layer PCB design.

To permit longer battery runtime, it supports the latest Bluetooth LE Power Control specification, which allows fine-tuning of RF output power in 1dBm increment, and up to +8dBm.

The connection of radio-link can be enhanced vis the Bluetooth Path-Loss Monitoring. There are also dedicated hardware functions and cryptographic IPs to support enhanced security.

About Bluetooth Low Energy

In the future, all platform devices will support 100% dual-mode of "classic Bluetooth + low energy Bluetooth". The market is now focusing more on Bluetooth Low Energy, which is the core driving force for innovation in peripheral devices.

Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE or BLE) is designed to significantly reduce power consumption and cost compared to classic Bluetooth while maintaining the same communication range. The applications includes healthcare, sports and fitness, beacons, security, home entertainment, smartphone, computer, and more.

Bluetooth 5.3 version improves the periodic broadcast, connection update, and channel classification in Bluetooth LE, thereby further improving the communication efficiency of BLE, reducing power consumption, and improving the wireless coexistence of Bluetooth devices.