Designed for the smallest connected devices, the xG27 and BB50 families range in size from 2mm-squared, about the width of a #2 pencil lead, to 5mm-squared, less than the width of a standard #2 pencil. These offer developers energy efficiency, high performance, trusted security, and in the case of the xG27 family, wireless connectivity. This makes the xG27 SoC family and BB50 MCU ideal for tiny, battery-optimized devices like connected medical devices, wearables, asset monitoring tags, smart sensors, simple consumer electronics like toys, and more.
"Silicon Labs is the pure-play IoT leader, and our breadth, depth, and focus enable us to support the broadest range of wireless connectivity protocols of any semiconductor company," says Silicon Labs CEO Matt Johnson. "The xG27 SoCs and BB50 MCUs are helping developers build exciting new devices while also simplifying their development processes, all while maintaining the low-power and small form-factor requirements for extremely small devices."
The new xG27 family of SoCs comprises the BG27, for Bluetooth connectivity, and the MG27, supporting Zigbee and other proprietary protocols. Built around the ARM Cortex M33 processor, the BG27 and MG27 share several common features designed to make them the ideal SoC for small form-factor devices. This includes wafer-level Chip Scale Packaging as small as 2.3mm x 2.6mm, ideal for compact and unobtrusive devices like medical patches, continuous glucose monitors, wearable electrocardiograms, and asset tags in various settings like retail and agriculture.
The xG27 SoCs also feature integrated DCDC Boost that can allow the devices to operate on batteries as low as 0.8V, thereby reducing their devices' size, form factor, and cost. They have an integrated Coulomb Counter that enables battery level monitoring to avoid battery depletion during the use of applications, improving user experience and product safety.
The two SoCs offer advanced security with Silicon Labs Secure Vault with Virtual Security Engine (VSE) for secure boot and debug hardened against glitch attacks, tamper protection, and additional features designed to protect the device and its users' data from local and remote cyber threats. A Shelf Mode reduces energy use to less than 20 nano amperes so that devices can be transported and stocked on shelves while maintaining nearly full battery life for the end-user.
The BG27 and MG27 open up and extend a wide range of possible applications and use cases. To turn the ongoing smart home revolution into a successful business, manufacturers of connected devices will be challenged to build smaller, smarter, more energy-efficient, and secure wireless sensors, switches, and thermostats, i.e., the devices that form the backbone of any automated home. The Silicon Labs EFR32xG27 family of wireless SoCs is designed for those battery-powered smart home designs. The BG27 is an ideal Bluetooth enabler on various smart home devices where ultra-low-power consumption must coincide with high-performance wireless, computing, and memory capacity – these include smart appliances. The Bluetooth mesh support on BG27 will allow energy-efficient and long-range multi-node LED lighting solutions with switches and sensors.
For developers, Silicon Labs offers hundreds of firmware examples to easily add functionality to an existing product with little or no additional firmware development effort.
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