nRF21540 Development Bundle (DB)

Nordic Semiconductor's nRF21540 DB consists of the nRF21540 development kit (DK) and the nRF21540 evaluation kit (EK). The nRF21540 DK is the perfect tool to develop products that require the range extension capabilities or link budget improvements provided by the nRF21540 RF front end module (FEM). The nRF21540 EK can connect to lab equipment via SMA connectors to monitor the RF FEM’s performance.

Nordic Semiconductor's nRF21540 DK contains the nRF21540 RF FEM and has two antenna ports with chip antennas and additional SWF connectors for direct RF measurements. The dual antennas can be used in an antenna diversity scenario with, for instance, Thread or Zigbee® (802.15.4) protocols to reduce multipath fading effects. The RF FEM is connected to and controlled by the nRF52840 advanced multi-protocol SoC that supports all Bluetooth® 5 features relating to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), mesh networking protocols such as Bluetooth mesh, Thread, and Zigbee, as well as 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols.

Sharing many similarities with the nRF52840 DK, the nRF21540 DK contains an onboard Segger J-LINK debugger accessible through USB, four user-programmable LEDs and four buttons, an NFC-A tag antenna connector, and current measurement pins. It is the perfect tool to enable real application performance testing with the extended range offered by the nRF21540.

On the nRF21540 EK, the RF FEM connects to lab equipment or radio via an SMA connector. The nRF21540’s gain control, antenna switching, and modes are controlled via GPIO or SPI or a combination of both, accessible through the Arduino Uno Rev3 compatible headers. The shield also features two additional SMA connectors connected to the dual antenna ports from the RF FEM to monitor the performance of the RF FEM using any equipment desired.

Features

• nRF21540 DK
• Versatile development kit for the nRF21540 RF FEM
• 2 GHz x 2.4 GHz antennas for antenna diversity
• Segger J-Link OB programmer/debugger
• Power and program/debug via USB interface
• Direct USB interface to nRF52840 SoC
• NFC-A tag antenna connector
• Arduino Uno Rev3 compatible
• User-programmable buttons (4) and LEDs (4)
• 1.7 V to 5.5 V supply from USB, external or Li-poly battery
• Pins for measuring power consumption
• nRF52840 SoC with BLE, 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol support
• Arm® Cortex®-M4 with floating-point unit
• Arm CryptoCell-310 cryptographic accelerator
• nRF21540 RF front end module
• nRF21540 EK
• Versatile evaluation kit for the nRF21540 that can be used with nRF52 and nRF53 series
• DKs as well as other radios
• ANT1 and ANT2 ports (SMA) for antennas or lab equipment
• TRX port (SMA) for connecting radio or lab equipment
• Pins for current measurement
• Arduino Uno Rev3 compatible
• nRF21540 RF front end module
• nRF21540 RF FEM
• Adjustable output power in small increments up to +21 dBm
• +13 dB RX gain with 2.7 dB noise figure
• Supports BLE, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Zigbee (802.15.4), and proprietary 2.4 GHz
• TX gain control via I/Os, SPI, or a combination
• 105°C extended operating temperature
• When used in combination with an nRF52 or nRF53 series SoC, it can improve RF performance with up to 8x range extension and -100 dBm RX sensitivity (BLE, 1 Mbps)