Low-cost Bluetooth modules offer secure communications for smart applications
Microchip presents the WBZ35x family of wireless modules, which feature a 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4F processor, a fully compliant Bluetooth® Low Energy 5.2 transceiver, and a comprehensive range of peripherals.
The WBZ35x family of wireless modules from Microchip are built around the high-performance, low-power PIC32CX-BZ3 family of systems-on-chip (SoCs). These low-cost, general-purpose microcontrollers are well suited for IoT and smart environments requiring versatile wireless communications with strict security.
The PIC32CX-BZ3 wireless MCUs support Bluetooth Low Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 wireless connectivity with an ultra low-power 2.4 GHz transceiver. This enables end products to cover large areas with mesh networks while consuming less power than previous designs. The transceiver is also Zigbee 3.0 certified and features software stacks which are built around the robust MPLAB Harmony v3 framework.
The WBZ35x family of wireless modules places all this functionality into a shielded surface-mount package with options for an onboard PCB antenna or external u.FL antenna connection. The WBZ351 and WBZ350 modules are based on the PIC32CX5109BZ31048 and PIC32CX5109BZ31032 SoCs and offer 27 or 14 GPIO pins respectively.
In addition to the processing and wireless capabilities, the WBZ35x modules offer useful peripherals for creating modern smart devices which exceed consumer expectations. These include a capacitive touch interface, up to eight 12-bit ADCs, and a 7-bit general-purpose DAC.
The high level of security offered by the WBZ35x wireless modules is due to the in-built hardware-based security accelerator and public critical hardware of the PIC32CX-BZ3 SoCs. Secure boot, AES security encryption and a hash code generator are also included to create a secure execution environment. Microchip Trust&GO support enables simple cloud authentication when building IoT infrastructure.