Swiss firm U-Blox has announced the Nora-W10 Wifi 4 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 module.

The module targets applications in harsh industrial environments where reliable RF performance and small size are critical, as well as medical equipment, smart cities, and warehouse and retail applications.

This is the successor of the Nina-W10 module, with additions such as Wifi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0, improved RF performance, built-in high-capacity flash memory, and lower power consumption.

The module uses the Espressif ES32-S3 chipset, which hosts a dual-core MCU with artificial intelligence hardware acceleration capable of enabling speech and face recognition applications at the edge. It offers hardware interfaces including USB, Can, SDIO, and display and camera interfaces.

Offering single-band 2.4GHz Wifi 4 (802.11b/g/n), it targets lower-end wifi segments that do not require the higher performance of higher-priced Wifi 5 and Wifi 6 modules. With robust wifi connectivity in the field and data rates that are sufficient for many industrial applications, Wifi 4 is projected to be the most widely used wifi technology in IoT applications until at least 2025 and remain on this level for the foreseeable future.

Even when communicating over wifi, it can concurrently transmit data over Bluetooth LE 5.0, which offers data rates up to 2Mbit/s or, using Bluetooth Long Range, can increase signal propagation distances up to four-fold compared with standard Bluetooth LE. Bluetooth mesh support extends achievable coverage by relaying messages from node to node until they reach their intended destination.

The module’s dual-core Xtensa LX7 MCU is complemented by 8Mbyte of flash memory, 512kbit of RAM, and 38 programmable GPIOs. Security features, including accelerated cryptographic flash encryption capabilities and secure boot, allow the globally certified module to run sensitive applications securely in a trusted and isolated environment, without requiring additional components.

With sufficient flash to support over-the-air updates, the module has a range of integration possibilities. When deployed in connected fitness equipment, for example, it can concurrently collect data from the equipment and from the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth LE 5.0. These data can then be transmitted over the on-premises wifi network for central storage.

EV charging stations can leverage the module’s Bluetooth LE 5.0 connectivity to simplify EV box configuration using the user’s smartphone. At the same time, they can transmit charging data to remote service providers via a nearby wifi access point.

Finally, the module’s AI capabilities make it suitable for edge-hosted face and voice recognition used by digital assistance, as well as by smart home and smart office products.

“Nora-W10’s vast feature set makes it a strong contender for demanding applications requiring Wifi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0, in a broad range of markets,” said Magnus Johansson, product strategy manager at U-Blox. “We are excited to see how product developers leverage the ES32-S3’s dual-core MCU in combination with the high RF performance enabled by our careful module design.”

The module, which measures 10.4 by 14.3 by 1.8mm, comes either with a PCB trace antenna or antenna pins. And pin and pad compatibility across the Nora module family allows product developers to address multiple market segments using the same PCB design.

First samples of the module and EVKs, including the USB variant, will be available next month.

With headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, U-Blox has offices in Europe, Asia and the USA.