SiLabs Unveils the BG2B Bluetooth 6 Low Energy System-on-Chip — Its Lowest-Power Series 2 Part Yet

Silicon Labs has announced its latest Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system-on-chip, the BG2B — promising its lowest-power BLE part yet, without sacrificing features like Bluetooth Channel Sounding and integrated security enclave.

"Bluetooth LE is moving beyond basic connectivity into secure ranging, proximity awareness, and location-aware experiences, while customers still need the low power, small form factor, and cost efficiency that made Bluetooth the foundation of battery-powered IoT [Internet of Things]," claims SiLabs senior vice president and chief technical officer Daniel Cooley.

"BG2B brings these requirements together in a single platform, combining our lowest-power Bluetooth LE architecture to date with advanced Channel Sounding, Secure Vault High security, and integrated peripherals that help customers build more capable, connected products with fewer external components."

The new chip enters SiLabs' Series 2 Bluetooht Low Energy family as its lowest power model yet. The company claims that it delivers a 14–15% reduction in active current on the microcontroller side, lower power draw in BLE reception mode, and a 1.1µA sleep current with memory retention for battery-backed standby. The microcontroller side features a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33F core running at up to 80MHz with 64kB of 128kB of static RAM (SRAM) and 1,016kB of flash. The radio is certified as Bluetooth 6 Low Energy and includes Channel Sounding support, allowing it to operate as a distance sensor to other compatible Bluetooth devices.

The BG2B includes up to 32 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, with UART, EUART, SPI, SmartCard, IrDA, I2S, I2C, and CAN FD buses, plus two 12-bit analog to digital converters (ADCs) and an analog comparitor. There's a digital microphone interface, constant-current LED sinks with pulse-width modulation support and hardware pattern generator, and the Secure Vault High security enclave with, among other features, cryptographic acceleration for common algorithms, a true random number generator, and a secure boot system.

"Customers are asking Bluetooth devices to do more: understand distance, protect access, last longer on small batteries, simplify hardware, and interoperate with the phone ecosystems people already use every day. That is a lot to ask from a small, battery-powered device," says SiLabs' Aashish Chaddha. "BG2B was built for that challenge. "It gives developers a path to secure distance awareness without adding another ranging radio. It advances the low-power foundation that battery-powered IoT depends on. It integrates more of the system into the SoC [System-on-Chip]. And it brings hardware-based security into the next generation of Bluetooth LE products."

More information on the new part is available on the official product page and the SiLabs blog; general availability is scheduled for some time early next year, with pricing yet to be announced.