Small but powerful: EFR32xG27 wireless SoC unveiled!

The design idea of ​​wireless SoC is not difficult to understand. It is to combine the control and wireless connection functions that originally belonged to two chips into one, and integrate MCU and RF wireless transceiver in a single chip, making the IoT product architecture simpler and development more convenient.

Precisely because of the above characteristics, wireless SoC (also known as wireless MCU) can well meet the needs of many IoT applications. It has become an indispensable part of the product portfolio of mainstream MCU manufacturers.

Of course, with the development of the market and the maturity of technology, the wireless SoC track is becoming more and more "crowded" and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. How to continuously promote the product iteration of wireless SoC and meet the rapidly changing market needs of the Internet of Things has become the winning strategy for all "players".

The secret to making wireless SoCs highly competitive can be summarized in one sentence: "small but powerful." That is, more functions should be integrated into the most compact single-chip package to improve the key performance of the product.

The “small” is easier to measure with intuitive numbers, but whether it is “powerful” requires careful observation from multiple aspects. These aspects include:

In short, starting from the four aspects of wireless performance, intelligent control, security functions, and low power consumption, establishing your own differentiated advantages, and then managing the "size" of the IC, it will be a natural thing to create a "small and powerful" wireless SoC.

So, what does a wireless SoC built according to this standard look like? Today we will introduce you to an EFR32xG27 wireless Gecko SoC produced by Silicon Labs , from which you can get a glimpse of the full picture of today's advanced wireless SoCs.

Figure 1: EFR32xG27 Wireless Gecko SoC

(Image source: Silicon Labs)

The EFR32xG27 Wireless Gecko SoC is a single-chip solution that combines a 76.8MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor core with a high-performance 2.4GHz radio. It includes two sub-series: EFR32BG27 (available in WLCSP and QFN packages, referred to as BG27) that supports Bluetooth 5.4, Bluetooth mesh networks and proprietary products, and EFR32MG27 (available in QFN packages, referred to as MG27) that supports Zigbee and multi-protocol networks.

The common features of these devices are: small size - the WLCSP package is only 2.3mm x 2.6mm, rich functions and low power consumption, which makes it easy to integrate into compact devices and has strong penetration in IoT applications.

Figure 2: EFR32xG27 Wireless Gecko SoC block diagram

(Image source: Silicon Labs)

First, the EFR32xG27 integrates a 76.8MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor core with DSP instructions and floating-point units, as well as up to 768kB of flash memory (program memory) and up to 64kB of RAM memory, which can achieve high-performance and efficient signal processing. At the same time, as can be seen from Figure 2 , the EFR32xG27 is equipped with a very rich peripheral resources, including mainstream analog, I/O, serial interface, timer, clock management and other functions, so it can cover a wide range of IoT applications.

Secondly, from the perspective of radio performance, the EFR32xG27 also performs very well, providing up to +8dBm transmit power, excellent receive sensitivity, and good low power consumption. In the wireless function module, an Arm Cortex-M0+ radio controller is integrated, which is dedicated to multi-mode communication protocol processing and is also conducive to achieving higher energy efficiency.

Table 1: EFR32xG27 radio performance and power consumption

(Source: Silicon Labs)

In addition, in terms of security, thanks to the use of Silicon Labs' Secure Vault™ technology (mid-level), the EFR32xG27 can obtain fairly comprehensive security protection, providing a high level of security by protecting communication channels and preventing logical attack vectors.

Figure 3: EFR32xG27 with Secure Vault™ technology

(Image source: Silicon Labs)

Then, the EFR32xG27 also performs very well in terms of low power consumption. The EFR32xG27 has five power modes (from E0 to E4, see Figure 2 ), which can turn on/off the corresponding functional circuits as needed: in EM0 active mode (under 76.8MHz conditions), the operating current of the EFR32xG27 is 29μA/MHz; in EM2 deep sleep mode (64kB RAM is retained and RTC runs from LFRCO), the current is only 1.6μA; and in EM4 shutdown mode, the current is as low as 0.18μA.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the common low-power measures in the above wireless SoCs, EFR32xG27 has also made some special optimizations to save power consumption to the greatest extent, extend battery life, and bring greater flexibility to system design:

• The EFR32xG27 features an integrated DC-DC boost converter, which provides a wider voltage range, allowing the device to operate at 0.8V - 1.7V or 1.8V - 3.8V, or even as low as 0.8V. This allows the system to use a single alkaline battery and button battery, thereby reducing the size and cost of the device.

• The EFR32BG27 is equipped with a wake-up pin (BOOST_EN), which allows products in storage or transportation to remain in a closed state for several months before waking up. The power consumption is less than 20nA, ensuring that the battery remains fully charged before the device is officially enabled, achieving longer battery life.

• The EFR32xG27 also integrates a coulomb counter to accurately monitor the battery charge level, allowing for more efficient power management and device maintenance based on the battery status.

In summary, EFR32xG27 has been deeply optimized according to the characteristics of IoT applications, and its label of "small and powerful" is well deserved.

The "small but powerful" feature of EFR32xG27 allows developers to easily embed it into various IoT applications, providing them with wireless interconnection capabilities and improving the intelligence level of electronic devices.

In industrial applications, EFR32xG27 can provide excellent practicality and convenience in asset tracking, remote monitoring of equipment, etc. Without expensive and complicated wiring, EFR32xG27 can transmit data through wireless communications such as Bluetooth and achieve more timely and comprehensive insights based on the data.

In the field of connected healthcare, EFR32xG27 helps apply high-performance low-power Bluetooth (BLE) connections to smaller and more challenging device packages (such as smart dental implants), creating differentiated products and exploring new business and service models. This is very conducive to the implementation of telemedicine and reducing healthcare costs, and the imagination space is huge.

Figure 4: EFR32xG27 in miniaturized medical devices

(Image source: Silicon Labs)

In the smart home scenario, EFR32xG27 can support mainstream home node device networking protocols such as Bluetooth and Zigbee, and can withstand the more stringent tests of the consumer electronics market in terms of appearance, cost, power consumption, security, etc. It has a wide range of applications and a very considerable market size.

In the automotive industry, EFR32xG27 is also expected to provide users with a new experience. For example, in traditional automotive tire pressure monitoring systems, the communication between sensors in the tire and the on-board computer is usually based on Sub-GHz wireless technology; if EFR32xG27 is used to establish a Bluetooth connection, it can provide key tire pressure information to the driver's smartphone, thus creating a friendlier and more operational user experience.

According to Metcalfe's law, the value of a network is equal to the square of the number of nodes in the network, which means that the value of the network is proportional to the square of the number of users connected to the network. Therefore, lowering the threshold for node device access and rapidly expanding the network scale are the core of the development of IoT applications.

The "small and powerful" wireless SoC EFR32xG27 is a powerful tool that meets the development needs of the Internet of Things! This article only takes you to a corner of the mystery of EFR32xG27. Explore more information about the EFR32xG27 SoC series products and development kits: https://cn.silabs.com/development-tools/wireless/efr32xg27-development-kit?tab=overview

This article is reprinted from Mouser Electronics WeChat official account, original link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lT92Tzc6mrV4sdWnqXFbBw

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