Bluetooth product series covering ultra-remote to indoor positioning and other scenarios

     Following the signing of an asset purchase agreement with Rigado to acquire its Bluetooth module business, u-blox Corporation, a leading global provider of positioning and wireless communications technologies, announced the launch of new Bluetooth modules BMD-341, BMD-345 and BMD-360 to further expand its BMD product range. This underscores u-blox's commitment to exploring Bluetooth  low-power innovations. The three new products will provide comprehensive solutions tailored to customer specific application standards.

     Among them, the BMD-360 module is fully compliant with the latest Bluetooth 5.1 standard and is the first Bluetooth module from u-blox to support Bluetooth direction finding. The BMD-360 is highly optimized for cost-critical long-range beacon applications, asset tracking in smart buildings and smart manufacturing systems, Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, warehousing and logistics, and other high-precision indoor positioning applications. The module is based on the nRF52811 system-on-chip (SoC) from Nordic Semiconductor, which has a 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4 processor running at 64MHz and a built-in antenna element.

     The BMD-360 comples two new Bluetooth 5.0 modules, the BMD-345 and BMD-341, both built on Nordic's nRF52840 SoC and featuring U.F.L connectors, for applications that require external antennas. As a result, these two modules can easily meet the stringent requirements of signal deployment applications. Examples include medical and industrial equipment that needs to be encased in an all-metal casing.

     In addition, with the embedded power amplifier and low noise amplifier, the BMD-345 further enhances its long-range performance, so it can provide customers with best-in-class performance on a limited budget, not only effectively expanding signal coverage, but also enabling further optimization of signal quality. For example, in applications including agriculture, asset tracking systems, and Bluetooth mesh network Repeaters, BMD-345 effectively enhances signal coverage while helping customers' products and systems easily cope with obstacles.

     Len Albertsson, lead product Manager of u-blox's Short Range Radio Product Center, said, "The introduction of these modules gives us the ability to bring more innovative and important features and solutions to our customers that fully meet their diverse needs." "We are excited about the trend to differentiate our Bluetooth products from niche markets by providing greater coverage and more accurate indoor positioning."

     In terms of pins and packages, the BMD-341 and BMD-345 are perfectly compatible with other BMD-34X products, enabling product design innovation and enabling customers to easily design a portfolio that is compatible with different antenna types and operating distances. The BMD-360 is also fully compatible with the BMD-330, BMD-300, and BMD-301.