Nordic Semiconductor nRF54L15

nRF54L15 System-on-Chip (SoC)

Nordic Semiconductor has developed a System-on-Chip (SoC), named nRF54L15, which is designed to support Bluetooth, Thread, and Matter protocols. The microcontroller is built around a 128MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor and has 1.5Mbyte of non-volatile memory and 256kbyte of RAM.

Nordic Semiconductor claims that this amount of memory is sufficient for running multiple protocols concurrently and provides double the processing power of the nRF52840 SoC while reducing power consumption. The microcontroller also boasts a 2.4GHz radio that provides up to +8dBm Tx power in 1dB increments and -98dBm Rx sensitivity for 1Mbit/s Bluetooth LE. It supports all Bluetooth 5.4 features, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, and Matter, and can accept the result of some Bluetooth specification updates. Additionally, it has a 4Mbit/s option for proprietary protocols.

Nordic has designed the new IC with built-in security features, utilizing the Cortex-M33 core and aiming for PSA Level 3 certification. The IC includes secured boot, firmware update and storage, as well as tamper sensors that can detect attacks and take protective action. Additionally, the cryptographic accelerators are hardened against side-channel attacks.

To conserve power, a global real-time clock peripheral has been developed that can wake up the IC from its deepest sleep mode, enabling multi-year battery life for certain products. The IC also features a 14-bit ADC and a software-defined peripheral enabled by a RISC-V co-processor.

The nRF54L15 is being sampled to selected customers in a 6 x 6mm QFN package, featuring 31 GPIOs. It will also be offered in a 2.4 x 2.2mm WLCSP package with a 300µm pitch, providing 32 GPIOs. Alternatively, a 350µm pitch version with 14 GPIOs will also be available.