[HN Gopher] Silicon Labs Shrinks Wireless SoCs to Extend BLE to ...
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Silicon Labs Shrinks Wireless SoCs to Extend BLE to Miniature
Devices
Author : WaitWaitWha
Score : 64 points
Date : 2025-03-20 02:58 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.allaboutcircuits.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.allaboutcircuits.com)
| gleenn wrote:
| I don't immediately see a picture of the actual chip to get a
| reference size bybitself, that that chip inside the tooth is
| pretty wild. I wonder how you would even begin to power
| electronics within such a space. Or perhaps this is more of a
| marketing level of graphics.
| metaphor wrote:
| From the article:
|
| > _The BG29 chips will be available in 5 mm x 5 mm QFN and 2.6
| mm x 2.8 mm WLCSP form factors_
|
| That "wireless oral health monitor" example is a concept from
| Lura Health[1] that integrates a marginally smaller BG27 (2.3mm
| x 2.6mm WLCSP)[2].
|
| [1] https://lurahealth.com
|
| [2] https://www.silabs.com/applications/case-studies/small-
| bluet...
| opello wrote:
| The second link isn't exactly forthcoming on the battery
| technology used, but at least says:
|
| > and its power consumption is low enough that the device can
| last from six months to a year on a battery of the equivalent
| size
|
| The average "width" of the first mandibular molar from this
| article[1] is 5.1-5.2mm. It sure would be interesting to see
| a CAD model of the design inside the module on the band. The
| graphics from the posted article vs. the first link above are
| also a bit different, making it even harder to infer much I
| think.
|
| [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5502574/
| nimish wrote:
| The antenna is the limiting factor IIRC, the smallest module
| available is this thing:
| https://www.fdk.com/cyber-e/electronic_components/module/ble...
| which has the antenna as a slot in the package itself.
| bboygravity wrote:
| Limiting factor for what application?
|
| The battery/power supply alone is going to be at least an order
| of magnitude larger in volume.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| "The battery/power supply alone is going to be at least an
| order of magnitude larger in volume."
|
| Indeed, people do use rechargeable lithium batteries like the
| 50mAh CR322 (22mm by 3mm) or smaller CR311, but these would
| only be able to handle a 11mA EFR32BG29 output load for a few
| hours at most... Yet in a mostly dormant power save mode YMMV
| =3
| inhumantsar wrote:
| if we're talking about a device that only needs centimeters
| worth of range and spends most of its time in deep sleep,
| those 50mA could last quite a while.
| bsder wrote:
| And would last a whole lot longer if the BLE
| manufacturers would pull their heads out of their asses
| and give us a chip with RTC wakeup current that doesn't
| suck.
|
| Microcrystal can make these things to run at <50nA.
| https://www.microcrystal.com/en/products/real-time-clock-
| rtc...
|
| All the BLE manufacturers are 1uA plus. It's infuriating.
| arghwhat wrote:
| You wouldn't use a chip antenna if you're that tight on PCB
| space.
|
| A trace at the circumference of the PCB, or a wire antenna that
| only take up space for the solder joint would do.
| TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
| Fractal antenna!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna
| xnzakg wrote:
| With the right pcb design you could use this to sneak in an
| entire microcontroller while making it seem like it's just an
| antenna, wild
| Sidnicious wrote:
| This one is ever so slightly smaller at 3.25 x 8.55 x 0.85mm:
| https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TAIYO-YUDEN/EYSHSNZWZ?q...
|
| Six of them fit on the face of a dime, which is wild.
| thmsths wrote:
| Unlike the FDK module, this module requires an external
| crystal oscillator, which makes me think that the total
| footprint ends up being larger.
| teleforce wrote:
| To be fair to Silicon Labs, they don't claim the smallest
| BLE module but FDK did exactly that [1].
|
| [1] The world's smallest Bluetooth(r) Low Energy Module,
| the new model "HY0021":
|
| https://www.fdk.com/whatsnew-e/release20241021-e.html
| anonymous_user9 wrote:
| The Hongjia HJ-131 is much smaller at 4x4x1.3mm
| https://www.renesas.com/en/document/dst/da14531-honjia-hj-13...
| ohazi wrote:
| This doesn't integrate the antenna, so it's not comparable.
| anonymous_user9 wrote:
| Yes it does. The HJ-131 module has an onboard antenna
| that's used by connecting pins 12 and 13.
| nimish wrote:
| This doesn't have MTP flash or anything though which is a
| bummer.
| zokier wrote:
| It's bit silly to say that they _shrink_ SoC when the new chip is
| exactly the same package as their previous generation from few
| years ago.
| jtrueb wrote:
| Is this not just a worse version of the nRF52 and nRF54 lineup?
| Larger size, fewer hardware peripherals, lower radio sensitivity.
| What is the new thing for this chip?
| bobmcnamara wrote:
| Compared to nRF52840(same ram/flash/packaging), this is nearly
| a millimeter smaller x/y, 3dB better sensitivity, 2.5x faster
| ADC sample rate(but who knows what that means with a +8dBm
| radio firing near it), and hopefully not botched readout
| protection. No USB though, big deal for some.
|
| I'm not familiar enough with the nRF54 series, but it's good to
| have a few competitors in this space.
| jtrueb wrote:
| The nRF54L15 looks better in most aspects. I mention the
| nRF52840 as it is a veteran in the space with a rich
| ecosystem at 1mm larger.
| human_llm wrote:
| Nordic Semiconductors has BLE SOCs in even smaller packages. E.g.
| the nRF54L15 is available in a 2.4 x 2.2 mm package.
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(page generated 2025-03-20 23:01 UTC)