The wireless microcontroller STM32WB55 has a younger brother, a fully pin-compatible STM32WB50

STM32 launched the dual-core multi-protocol wireless STM32WB microcontroller in 2019. The dual cores are the 64 MHz Cortex®-M4 core (application processor) and the 32 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M0+ core (network processor), supporting Bluetooth™ 5 and IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standards.

These two completely independent cores enable this innovative architecture to optimally support real-time execution (radio-related software processing), flexible resource usage and power management, resulting in lower BOM cost and a better user experience.

The first STM32WB55 microcontroller is Bluetooth™ 5 certified, supports Mesh 1.0 networks and multiple profiles, and can flexibly integrate proprietary BLE stacks. The common IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer ensures that the STM32WB55 can run proprietary protocols or stacks, including ZigBee®* and Thread low-power Mesh network protocols, providing designers with more options for connecting devices to the Internet of Things (IoT); the STM32WB55 series includes a wide range of communication functions, including a practical crystal-less USB 2.0 FS interface, audio support, LCD drive, touch sensing, up to 72 GPIOs, integrated SMPS for optimizing power consumption, and multiple low-power modes to maximize battery life; at the same time, the STM32WB55 series also includes embedded security hardware functions, such as 256-bit AES hardware encryption, PCROP read and write protection, JTAG fuse bits, public key encryption using elliptic curve encryption engine, etc.

The recently launched STM32WB50* Value Series wireless microcontrollers (MCUs) are complete and pin-compatible derivatives of the STM32WB55 system-on-chip, also following the dual-core architecture and supporting multiple wireless protocols. They can be used for cost-sensitive IoT devices that need to support Bluetooth® 5.0, ZigBee® 3.0 or OpenThread standards . The series offers good link budgets from 100dB in Bluetooth 5.0 mode to 104dB in 802.15.4 mode.

The Arm®Cortex®-M4 core processes user application software, and the Cortex-M0+ core runs the RF subsystem including the RF protocol stack and security functions. If developers want to solve security or real-time application restriction issues by isolating RF and applications, the STM32WB50 is the best choice.

The STM32WB50 combines strong security with the economy of the value series. The on-chip integrated AES-256 encryption module and other basic security functions provide strong security for applications. The product has 1MB of flash memory and 128KB of RAM, and allows wireless (OTA) updates of the RF protocol stack software. The STM32WB50 uses the power saving mode of the STM32WB55, which is ideal for energy-saving applications.

By integrating the balun circuit, the STM32WB50 can save bill of materials costs and simplify the PCB board layout design. To further reduce the bill of materials cost, the STM32WB50 package allows the use of a very simple PCB board with a maximum of two layers.

As a complete derivative of the STM32WB55, the STM32WB50 also supports the market-proven STM32Cube ecosystem . Therefore, the new product is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, BLE Mesh, ZigBee 3.0 or OpenThread certified protocol stacks and a comprehensive toolkit. The open source protocol stack is packaged in the STM32CubeWB MCU software package ; the toolkit includes the STM32CubeMonRF, a dedicated tool for RF performance evaluation, and the STM32CubeProg programmer with functions such as secure burning of the RF protocol stack .

▲ STM32WB product selection table

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