NEW PRODUCTS

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.

Lihi

Recent Posts

Renesas Unveils Industry’s First 650V GaN in Dual-Side Cooled 8x8mm Package for Megawatt-Scale AI Data Centers

Dual-side cooling (DSC) shrinks package footprint by 57% compared with TOLT, packing more power into…

20 hours ago

Leica Microsystems launches AI software module for consistent inspection decisions

Supporting manufacturers with reliable defect identification and scalable quality control across production lines Leica Microsystems,…

20 hours ago

Teradyne Introduces Near-DUT Test Platform for LPDDR6, DDR6 and GDDR7

The Magnum E2 system supports emerging DRAM and NAND interfaces while using common hardware and…

20 hours ago

ARX Robotics and DEUTZ Deliver First Ulm-Built GEREON UGVs to Ukraine

The first unmanned ground systems left the production line only 12 weeks after the two…

20 hours ago

AMD Releases Ross Agentic Assistant for Vivado and Vitis HLS Workflows

The available-now engineering assistant connects language models to AMD development tools, documentation and reusable FPGA…

20 hours ago

Murata Begins Mass Production of 0201-Inch Three-Terminal Low-ESL MLCCs

The 0.6 × 0.3 mm capacitors occupy 64% less mounting area than Murata’s previous smallest…

21 hours ago