A Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (LE) module from Panasonic is for applications where difficult housing conditions shield radio waves and an external antenna needs to be used.

The Japanese company’s PAN1770 module includes a uFL connector to enable the use of an external antenna for radio-unfavourable applications. It is based on the nRF52840 single chip controller and can be seen as a variant of the PAN1780 Bluetooth 5 module.

Output power of up to 8dBm plus sensitivity of 95dBm at 1Mbit/s and -103dBm at 125kbit/s of the nRF52840 chip controller in combination with the LE coded PHY make the module suitable for applications where a long range is required.

In addition, current consumption of 4.8mA in transmit mode at 0dBm, 4.8mA in receive mode, 0.4μA in system off mode and ~0.7μA with RTC wake-up make the module suitable for battery-powered devices.

Featuring an Arm Cortex-M4F processor, 256kbyte RAM and built-in 1Mbyte flash memory, the device can be used in standalone mode, eliminating the need for an external processor, reducing complexity, lowering costs and saving space. Furthermore, the device also supports type-two near-field communications for use in simplified pairing and payment applications where an external antenna is required.

“We have seen that in many devices or applications, radio waves emitted by the chip antenna can be blocked or reflected by the metallic housing, making it difficult to receive the radio signal from the outside,” said Tomislav Tipura from Panasonic Industry Europe. “By using our new PAN1770 module, an external antenna can easily be attached via the uFL connector and thus redirect the radio waves outside the housing.”

Size is 15.6 by 8.7 by 1.8mm, maximum output power 8dBm, configurable from -20dBm in 4dB steps and -4 dBm in whisper mode, support for Matter, Zigbee and Thread, as well as up to 48 programmable GPIOs along with a hardware interface set including SPI, I²C, uart, PWM, ADC, NFC and USB 2.0.

Founded in 1918, Panasonic reported consolidated net sales of ¥7388.8bn for the year ended March 2022.