New STM32WB Wireless Microcontrollers from STMicroelectronics Deliver Affordable Convenience and Performance
March 11, 2021
News
The STM32WB15 and STM32WB10 Value Line MCUs are in production now, offering various pin-compatible configurations in QFN48 package, priced from $1.3986 for orders of 10000 pieces.
STMicroelectronics has extended its STM32WB* Bluetooth® LE microcontroller (MCU) offering with new devices that combine entry-level features with power savings for lasting performance.
The dual-core STM32WB15 and STM32WB10 Value Line pair an Arm Cortex-M4 processor to run the main application and a Cortex-M0+ to handle Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, ensuring real-time performance from each. The radio stage has a 102dBm link budget to ensure reliable connections over long distances and integrates balun circuitry to save board space and reduce the bill of materials.
With a new ultra-power-saving mode that allows the radio to remain operational, and carefully tailored peripherals and memory, the new devices are suited to cost-sensitive, power-conscious embedded applications including wearables, beacons, smart circuit breakers, trackers, IoT endpoints, and equipment for industrial automation.
The Software Development Kit (SDK) for each MCU includes standardized radio protocol stacks and openness to proprietary protocols with a set of security mechanisms that ensure safe software updates for brand protection and device integrity, with Proprietary Code Read-Out Protection (PCROP) to guard intellectual property.
With these new devices, the STM32WB series scales across package variants, offering options including extended GPIOs and pin-to-pin compatibility between similar packages of the portfolio. Customers can migrate designs between devices to take advantage of different features and memory densities, leveraging pin-compatibility across packages.
The development ecosystem includes STM32Cube certified radio stacks that support various profiles, software expansion packs and sample code, the STM32CubeMX configurator and initialization code generator, the STM32CubeIDE development environment, a STM32CubeMonitor-RF evaluation tool, and associated Nucleo hardware tools.
For more information, visit: https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en.html
Tiera Oliver is the assistant managing editor at Embedded Computing Design. She is responsible for web content editing, product news, and story development. She also manages, edits, and develops content for ECD podcasts, including Embedded Insiders.
She utilizes her expertise in journalism and content management to oversee editorial content, coordinate with editors, and ensure high-quality output across web, print, and multimedia platforms. She manages diverse projects, assists in the production of digital magazines, and hosts company podcasts by conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders to deliver engaging and insightful discussions.
Tiera attended Northern Arizona University, where she received her bachelor's in journalism and political science. She was also a news reporter for the student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
