Murata shrinks NBIoT module and stretches battery life

Hoofddorp, Netherlands: Murata today announced what is believed to be the world’s smallest narrow-band IoT (NBIoT) cellular wireless module. The LBAD0ZZ1RX measures just 15.6 mm x 14.0 mm x 2.2 mm, is fabricated on a PCB with a metal casing, and is designed for use in compact, battery powered IoT/IIoT applications. The module integrates a HiSilicon Hi2115 single-die wireless SoC device that provides the radio transceiver, baseband and application processor functions. In addition, the module hosts a DC/DC converter, a power management IC, wireless front end matching components such as baluns and low pass filters and an RF switch. The HiSilicon Hi2115 includes an Arm Cortex M0 processor core running at 40 MHz and equipped with 64 kBytes of SRAM and 256 kBytes of Flash that controls module communications using the industrial standard AT command set. The module features a comprehensive set of peripheral interface functions including UART, I²C and SPI along with GPIO and an ADC.

The module conforms to the NB-IoT 3GPP release 13 narrow-band standard and can operate in the low and middle bands.

The low power characteristics of the LBAD0ZZ1RX module make it suitable for use in a wide variety of small battery powered IoT applications and it is capable of sustaining a 10 year battery life.

Mass production is scheduled for Q1 2019.