nRF7000 Wi-Fi 6 Companion Chip Provides SSID-Based Locationing

Today, Nordic Semiconductor announced the availability of the third member of its Wi-Fi 6 nRF70 family. The nRF7000 provides SSID location capability to a host microcontroller. It is an ideal companion to Nordic's cellular-based nRF91 SiPs but works with other microcontrollers as well.

Generally, IoT devices have three potential sources for determining their location. They can obtain a rough position by triangulating signals between multiple towers if equipped with a cellular radio. A more precise but power-hungry method is to use a GNSS (GPS) receiver. A third method of using Wi-Fi SSID and signal strength works well in areas with relatively high population density. Of course, having all three in a single device means precision and power consumption flexibility.

Previously, Nordic Semiconductor introduced the nRF7002 and nRF7001. All nRF70 chips have Wi-Fi 6-enabled technologies. The nRF7001 and nRF7002 are complete radios capable of data communication and SSID-based locationing. The nRF7001 operates at 2.4 GHz, and the nRF7002 is a dual-band IC with 2.4 and 5.0 GHz capabilities. The new chip is slightly different.

The nRF7000 only supports active and passive scanning of 2.4 GHz access points for their SSIDs to determine location. Since resolving a location with SSID requires an active data connection, the companion IC works best with Nordic's nRF9160 LTE-M/NB-IoT cellular SiPs.

An example transaction is the nRF7000 obtaining information about nearby Wi-Fi SSIDs. The host processor transmits that data to the nRF Cloud. Then, a cloud application could use the resolved location or send it back to the device.

Like all the nRF70 variants, the new chip works with nRF52, nRF53, or other microcontroller hosts. It communicates to the host via a SPI or QSPI interface. A coexistence port also assists with sharing the antenna between the nRF7000 and other 2.4 GHz radios, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

You can get started programming with the nRF7000 right away. Nordic's nRF Connect SDK already has a sample code to determine the position with the nRF70 family. These examples are found with the nRF91 DK sample code.

Nordic also announced today that the nRF7002 Evaluation Kit is available to ship. This board contains an nRF7002 but can effectively emulate the nRF7000 by turning off data communication features. This capability means you can plug an EK into the nRF9160 DK and quickly start developing IoT devices with Wi-Fi 6 SSID-based locationing.

Chips are now available in a 6x6 millimeter QFN-48 package. Check out the nRF7000 product page for more information.