13 December 2024

Nordic Semiconductor has announced the general availability of its nRF9151, a system-in-package (SiP) it claims offers ‘the smallest and lowest power’ solution for cellular Internet of Things (IoT) projects — which can be used as a dedicated modem or an application microcontroller.

The nRF9151 SiP, measuring just 12×11mm, features a single Arm Cortex-M33 core running at up to 64MHz, 256kB of static RAM (SRAM), and 1MB of flash memory, plus Arm’s TrustZone and CryptoCell security technologies — allowing it to act as a primary application processor in a variety of projects, or to run as a communications processor next to a more powerful microcontroller or microprocessor.

The nRF9151 is around 20% smaller than the nRF9161 and adds support for Power Class 5 20dBm on top of Power Class 3 23dBm, as well as along with full compatibility with 3GPP Release 14 LTE-M/NB-IoT and 1.9GHz DECT NR+. For the longest of long-range communication, Nordic has pledged support for satellite communication in an updated firmware.

Nordic has also launched the nRF9151 Development Kit (DK), a development board that breaks out the SiP’s features into an easily-accessible form factor — including support for using its general-purpose input/output (GPIO) headers on Arduino UNO-format pin headers. The board is ready, complete with a bundled SIM card with pre-loaded data allowance, and comes with an embedded SEGGER J-Link for programming and debugging — usable also with external targets, if desired.

“aI’m excited that the nRF9151 is now entering production because we know our customers and many other IoT developers demand a highly integrated, compact, and low power LTE-M/NB-IoT and DECT NR+ solution,” said Nordic’s Øyvind Birkene. “Not only does the nRF9151 bring class-leading performance to cellular IoT, but Nordic is also the only global company to offer a complete cellular IoT solution. We are eager to also close gaps and bring global coverage through the upcoming NTN support.”