Silicon Labs has unveiled a new Bluetooth SoC for extremely small devices

Silicon Labs has introduced the xG27 family of Bluetooth System-on-chip (SOCs), including BG27 for Bluetooth connectivity and MG27 that supports Zigbee and other proprietary protocols. The SoCs are a new family of integrated circuits designed for extremely small Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The XG27 series is designed for extremely small size iot devices, ranging in size from 2mm on the side (about the width of a #2 pencil lead) to 5mm (less than the width of a standard #2 pencil). It can provide Internet of Things device designers with power saving, high performance and reliable security. The xG27 series also offers wireless connectivity, making the xG27 system-on-chip ideal for tiny, battery-optimized devices such as connected medical devices, wearables, asset monitoring tags, smart sensors, and easy-to-use consumer electronics such as toothbrushes and toys.

"Silicon Labs is a leading iot vendor focused on technology development, and our breadth, depth and focus allow us to support the broadest wireless connectivity protocol of any semiconductor company," said Matt Johnson, CEO of Core Technology. "The xG27 system-on-chip is helping developers build groundbreaking, innovative devices that simplify their development processes while ensuring low power consumption and small size requirements for extremely small devices."

The xG27 System on Chip is one of the smallest connected wearable devices in the world

The new xG27 system-on-chip family, which includes BG27 and MG27, is built on ARM Cortex M33 processors and shares several common features designed to make it an ideal SoC for small devices, including:

● CSP packages as small as 2.3x2.6mm are ideal for use in sophisticated and inconspicuous devices such as medical patches, continuous glucose monitors, wearable electrocardiograms and asset tags in a variety of retail and agricultural environments.

● Integrated DC-DC boost allows devices to run on batteries as low as 0.8 volts, thus reducing device size, shape and cost.

● Integrated Coulomb counter, can realize the battery power monitoring, avoid the use of application products in the process of battery exhaustion, improve user experience and product security.

Advanced Security of Silicon Labs Secure Vault and Virtual Security Engine (VSE) for enhanced security startup and debugging, fault attack, tamper protection, and other features, Designed to protect device user data from local and remote network threats.

● Shelf Mode reduces energy usage to less than 20 nA so that devices can be shipped and stored on shelves, while maintaining nearly complete battery life for the end user.

Lura Health, a medical device manufacturer and participant in the BG27 pilot development project, initially chose the new system-on-chip as the basis for the development of a new wearable smart device. However, unlike other wearables, which are most common on the wrist or external skin, the new Lura Health monitor can be placed inside the mouth. Specifically, the device is so small that it sticks to the teeth. With the device, dentists and other clinicians can collect vital data from saliva that can be used to test for more than 1,000 health conditions.

"BG27 is perfect because it is small enough to enable us to develop iot sensors smaller than a tooth, with power consumption low enough to allow products that are not limited by battery life," said Noah Hill, co-founder and CTO of Lura Health. It also has enough memory to store complex firmware applications, enabling us to perform the data analysis needed to extract more in-depth information from what is being monitored, and has the sensor interface required for all peripherals. We spent hundreds of hours looking for a microcontroller that would meet our needs, and BG27 was the only solution that met all of them."