Gowin Semiconductor's Bluetooth FPGA module obtains EU CE certification

Guangzhou, China - Guangdong Gowin Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (Gowin Semiconductor), the world's fastest growing programmable logic company, has received the European Union's CE-RED (Radio Equipment Directive) certification for its BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy Radio) module, allowing developers to quickly and easily integrate the GW1NRF-4 µSoC FPGA BLE module into their end products.

At the end of 2019, Gowin Semiconductor released the first GW1NRF-4 FPGA with an integrated BLE module. The device provides 4.6k LUTs, integrates a 32-bit low-power ARC processor and a Bluetooth BLE module, and is packaged in a 6x6mm QFN. In order to provide customers with a more complete solution, Gowin Semiconductor is producing certified GW1NRF BLE modules, enabling customers to design terminal products easily and quickly.

Wireless ICs are usually provided by semiconductor manufacturers in two forms. Some developers need to integrate Bluetooth chips into their own system circuit boards. In this case, developers need to certify their overall circuit board functions for Bluetooth in the corresponding areas of their terminal products, which can provide a more flexible way to integrate chips, but usually adds additional certification costs to the end product manufacturer. Another option is to integrate an already certified PCB module. The module contains the Bluetooth module and other required circuits, such as decoupling capacitors, oscillators, and antennas. In this way, customers can integrate the pre-certified PCB module into a larger system circuit board without recertifying the rest of the system.

“Compared to the pure GW1NRF-4 Bluetooth FPGA chip, many customers prefer to provide certified GW1NRF-4 modules,” said Grant Jennings, International Marketing Director of Gowin Semiconductor. “Customers may have huge costs and technical burdens to obtain Bluetooth functional certification in different countries/regions. Therefore, Gowin Semiconductor provides pre-certified GW1NRF-4 Bluetooth low energy modules to save customers the certification burden and make it easy for customers to carry out product design.”

"Gowin Semiconductor has been committed to providing customers with perfect solutions," said Huang Jun, Vice President of Marketing and Sales Director of China at Gowin Semiconductor. "Module products based on GW1NRF-4 Bluetooth FPGA will greatly reduce the development difficulty and lower the threshold for customers to use. This module is highly integrated and provides sufficient flexibility, which allows users to flexibly develop terminal products and effectively shorten the time-to-market. This module has passed Bluetooth certification, and customers do not need to bear the certification costs."

The Gowin Semiconductor GW1NRF-4 Bluetooth module is a 19x20mm module that includes the GW1NRF-4 device, related passive components, a crystal oscillator and an antenna. This module provides a "plug and play" implementation for products with FPGA and Bluetooth functions.

Gowin Semiconductor recently demonstrated a GW1NRF-4 BLE-enabled FPGA at Embedded World 2020 and will continue to develop more reference designs and demonstrations around the device to quickly provide users with Bluetooth FPGA capabilities.