Nordic Semiconductor, a Norwegian specialist in low-power wireless connectivity, has introduced an expansion board to help developers create energy-efficient, Wifi 6-enabled IoT products.

The nRF7002 Expansion Board II (EBII) plug-in board adds Wifi 6 capabilities to Nordic’s nRF54L series development kits (DKs).

Based on Nordic’s nRF7002 wifi companion IC, the EBII allows product developers using nRF54L multiprotocol SoCs to bring the benefits of Wifi 6 – including power efficiency gains for battery-powered wifi operation and management of large IoT networks – to a wide range of IoT applications. Typical use cases include smart home and Matter-enabled devices, industrial sensors and smart city infrastructure, as well as wearables and medical devices.

The board accelerates Wifi 6 development by providing seamless hardware and software integration with the nRF54L15 and nRF54LM20 DKs, enabling developers to build connected multiprotocol applications while leveraging Nordic’s expertise in low power wireless technology.

The EBII supports dual-band wifi (2.4 and 5GHz) and Wifi 6 features such as target wake time (TWT), OFDMA and BSS colouring, enabling efficient, interference-free, battery-powered operation. It has a dual-band chip antenna ensuring connectivity across wifi bands. The onboard nRF7002 companion IC (www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF7002) offers Wifi 6 compliance, as well as backwards compatibility with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wifi standards. It supports STA and SoftAP operation modes for flexible network configuration.

The EBII is designed for easy integration with nRF54L development kits via a dedicated expansion header. Developers can also leverage SPI or QSPI interfaces for flexible host communication and use integrated headers for power profiling, making the board suitable for energy-constrained designs.

The board is fully supported in the nRF Connect SDK, Nordic’s unified and flexible software development kit. The nRF Connect SDK (www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-software/nRF-Connect-SDK) provides developers with a streamlined workflow and example code for rapid prototyping and accelerated product development.

The nRF7002 EBII (www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-hardware/nRF7002-EBII) will be available through Nordic distribution network early next year.