Nanopower in Wireless Quarter

Nordic Semiconductor's quarterly news and technology magazine Wireless Quarter is intended to keep readers up-to-date on what's happening with Bluetooth Low Energy, low power cellular IoT, ANT+, Thread, Zigbee, and RF proprietary wireless technology.

Power management solution increases battery life tenfold.

Norwegian firm, Nanopower, has released a module for IoT developers working with highly restricted power budgets that dramatically reduces sleep mode power consumption while increasing battery life tenfold. Based on Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC, the nP-BLE52 module employs a proprietary power management IC which enables it to cut power to the SoC, putting it in sleep mode, before waking it up at a preset time and in the same state as before it was put to sleep. The SoC’s power consumption in sleep mode is reduced to 10 nA, making the module a good choice for IoT applications where battery life is critical.

Once the Nordic SoC has completed its tasks, it instructs the nP-BLE52 to put it to sleep and wake it up again at the pre-set
time. The nP-BLE52 then stores the SoC’s state variables and waits until it needs to be powered up again. On wake-up, the device uploads the stored state variables,
allowing the SoC to be restored to the same operational state as before the power was switched off.
The nP-BLE52 module also features a low power MCU which can be set to handle external sensors and actuators when the Nordic chip is switched off. In this state, the module still monitors sensors and buffer readings and can trigger wake ups if these readings are above predetermined thresholds, while consuming less than 1 uA.
The module is suitable for any battery powered device which is not required to be constantly active, for example, asset tracking, remote monitoring, beacons, and some smart home applications.

The module either extends battery life and/or reduces the size of the battery required to power the application thereby shrinking the end product footprint. Longer battery life also reduces or eliminates battery swaps and enables the developer to better adjust for remaining useful battery life.

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