NRF52840 Bluetooth® 5 Evaluation Board[Video]: Datasheet, Nrf52832 VS Nrf52840, and Applications

The nRF52840 is an advanced, highly flexible single-chip solution for today’s increasingly demanding ULP wireless applications for connected devices on our person, connected living environments, and the IoT at large. It is designed to be ready for the major feature advancements of Bluetooth® 5 and takes advantage of Bluetooth 5’s increased performance capabilities which include long-range and high throughput modes. Inherent industry-grade security is essential in today’s applications. The nRF52840 adds best-in-class security for CortexTM-M Series with an on-chip ARM® CryptoCell cryptographic accelerator.

The nRF52840 employs the same hardware and software architecture as existing nRF52 Series SoCs. At its core is an ARM Cortex-M4F processor allowing quicker and more efficient computation of complex functions for DSP and those requiring floating-point math. 

• Bluetooth 5 ready multi-protocol radio

• Bluetooth 5 datarate support: 2Mbs, 1Mbs, 500kbs, 125kbs

• 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F @ 64MHz

• High-speed 2Mbs data-rate

• Up to 111 dB link budget for Bluetooth long-range mode

• Full-speed 12Mbs USB controller

• NFC-A on-chip

• Software stacks available as downloads

• Application development independent of the protocol stack

• Programmable output power from +8dBm to -20dBm

• -96dBm Sensitivity for Bluetooth low energy

• On-air compatible with nRF51, nRF24L, and nRF24AP Series

• ARM Cryptocell CC310 cryptographic accelerator

• RSSI

• Wide supply voltage range +5.5v to 1.7v

• Full selection of interfaces SPI/UART/PWM

• Programmable Peripheral Interface - PPI

• High-speed SPI interface 32MHz

• Quad SPI interface 32MHz

• EasyDMA for all digital interfaces

• RAM mapped FIFO using EasyDMA

• 12bit/200K SPS ADC

• 128 bit AES/ECB/CCM/AAR co-processor

• Single-ended antenna output (on-chip balun)

• On-chip DC-DC buck converter

• Quadrature demodulator

• Regulated supply for external components up to 25mA

NRF52840 Drawings

NRF52840 Block Diagram

NRF52840 Symbol

NRF52840 Footprint

The USB interface is the nRF52840 Dongle's default power source. The nRF52840 SoC's on-chip high voltage regulator is powered by the USB port.

The SoC and LEDs are powered by the regulator's output. Along the board edge, there is also a USB power connector (VBUS). A connection point for VDD OUT, the output of the nRF52840 SoC high voltage regulator, is located next to VBUS. See the nRF52840 Product Specification for the maximum power draw from this pad, taking into account the power draw of the onboard nRF52840 and the LEDs.

NRF52840 Internal regulator

Through the VDD OUT connection port, the nRF52840 Dongle can also be powered by an external regulated 1.8–3.6 V supply. SB2 must be cut and SB1 soldered in order for this to happen.

NRF52840 External regulated source

A green LED (LD1), a multicolor RGB LED (LD2), a user-customizable button (SW1), and a reset button are all included with the nRF528540 Dongle (SW2). The nRF52840 SoC has dedicated I/Os for the LEDs and buttons.

NRF52840 Buttons and LEDs

• Advanced wearables

- Connected watches

- Advanced personal fitness devices

- Wearables with wireless payment

- Connected Health

- Virtual/Augmented Reality applications

• IoT

- Smart Home sensors and controllers

- Industrial IoT sensors and controllers

• Interactive entertainment devices

- Advanced remote controls

- Gaming controller

Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor business that focuses on short-range wireless and low-power cellular IoT applications. Nordic developed Bluetooth Low Energy, a widely used wireless technology, and pioneered ultra-low-power wireless. The company's award-winning Bluetooth LE solutions have propelled it to the top of the industry, and ANT+, Thread, and Zigbee products round out the offering. Nordic's reputation is built on providing cutting-edge wireless technology and development tools that protect designers from the complexities of RF. This philosophy is carried over to Nordic's newest technology, cellular IoT. This NB-IoT and LTE-M solution, which was launched in 2018 after four years of research, uses cellular infrastructure to extend the IoT.