Bluetooth modules expanded to accommodate ultra-long range to indoor location applications

u-blox has expanded the BMD product series that it recently acquired from Rigado. The company has announced the introduction of the BMD-341, the BMD-345, and the BMD-360 Bluetooth modules, offering customers a comprehensive selection of solutions for their specific application criteria.

Fully compliant with the latest Bluetooth v5.1 specification, the BMD-360 module is the first u-blox Bluetooth module to support Bluetooth’s direction-finding feature. The BMD-360 is highly optimized for cost-sensitive, long-range beacon applications, asset tags for smart building and smart manufacturing systems, Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, warehouse logistics, and many other high precision, indoor location-based services. Central to its functional capabilities is the nRF52811 system-on-chip (SoC) from Nordic Semiconductor. This incorporates a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 processor running at 64MHz, and a built-in antenna element.

The BMD-360 is complemented by the BMD-345 and BMD-341 Bluetooth 5.0 modules, both of which are built around Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC. Both modules feature a U.FL connector for applications requiring an external antenna. This makes them ideal for deployments in challenging use cases, such as medical and industrial devices built into metal enclosures.

Pushing the long-range performance even further with its embedded power amplifier and a low noise amplifier, the BMD-345 will play a pivotal role in use cases requiring best-in-class link budget for extended coverage and enhanced signal quality. These use cases can, for instance, include agriculture, asset tracking systems, and Bluetooth-based mesh networks repeaters, enhancing their operational range and their ability to deal with obstacles.

The BMD-341 and BMD-345 are both pin and footprint compatible with all other BDM-34x products, thereby facilitating design upgrades or the design of product variants with different antenna types and ranges. The BMD-360 is fully compatible with the BMD-330, BMD-300, and BMD-301.

Samples of BMD-341 and of BMD-360 will be available in October, and samples of BMD-345 will follow later this year.