u-blox announces smallest industrial Bluetooth 5 module

Ultra-compact and designed for tough environments, ANNA-B1 is fully tailored to applications for the Industrial Internet of Things.

Thalwil, Switzerland – March 13, 2018 – u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a global leader in wireless and positioning technologies, has announced the new ANNA-B1 Bluetooth 5 module for industrial applications. Its ultra-compact module design and industrial operating temperature range make it ideal for wide-ranging applications in size-constrained designs requiring high speed Bluetooth connectivity. ANNA‑B1 comes certified for select markets off the shelf.

Essentially, the new ANNA-B1 is a miniaturized variant of the meanwhile well-established u‑blox NINA‑B1 Bluetooth low energy module, packed as a System-in-Package (SiP) design into a tiny 6.5 by 6.5 millimeter footprint, just 1.2 millimeters thin.

ANNA‑B1 includes an Arm® Cortex®-M4 microcontroller unit with a floating point unit, flash and RAM. The open CPU option provides full access to the module’s microcontroller so that custom applications can be embedded into the module. Alternatively, product developers can speed up time to market by leveraging the full force of pre-flashed u‑blox connectivity software. Fully tested and verified, and supporting many IoT applications, u‑blox connectivity software includes a GATT client and server for connectivity attributes, Serial Port Service, simultaneous peripheral and central role, and NFC technology for easy pairing to other Bluetooth low energy devices. ANNA-B1 has a built in antenna, but also allows for external antenna designs.

Typical applications for the ANNA‑B1 Bluetooth module are small devices such as power tools, industrial and medical sensor products, wearables, and point of sale devices that require Bluetooth 5 connectivity, either individually or as part of a mesh network. Medical and sports wearables and telematics aftermarket products including insurance boxes will benefit from the ANNA‑B1’s small footprint.

“With the addition of ANNA-B1 to our product portfolio, we are pleased to offer product designers an extended palette of products that they can chose from to meet their specific needs,” says Len Albertsson, Principal Product Manager, Product Strategy Short Range Radio at u‑blox. “In an industry where reductions in size and weight often come at the expense of product features, we’re very excited by how well our new ANNA-B1 module ranks alongside the NINA-B1 module.”

Engineering samples of the ANNA‑B1 will be available in Q2 2018.