TRACK E: An ultra low power Bluetooth Smart integrated solution/ Franz Dugand, Simon Gray
1. May 1, 2013
An ultra low power
Bluetooth Smart integrated solution
May 1, 2013
Franz Dugand, RivieraWaves, France
Simon Gray, CSEM, Switzerland
2. May 1, 2013
Bluetooth Smart solution offering
• RivieraWaves and CSEM team up to provide the world’s
lowest power Bluetooth Smart (aka Bluetooth low
energy) integrated solution as IP
• Qualified solution
• High performance and ultra low power RF
• Reference application for Smart Phones, and demo web
database
BLE RF
BLE BB CPU
memperiph
logic
BLE
SW
Enable differentiated highly integrated SoC for Bluetooth Smart Devices
3. May 1, 2013
CSEM – Leader in Ultra Low Power RF
• 30 years history of low power IC design and industrial projects
• Leading edge low-power and low-voltage IC experience
• Design of complex ASICs and System-on-Chip’s (SoC)
Team with 60 experienced designers
Global ASIC service
From design to industrialization
Fabless One-Stop ASIC Shop
www.csem.ch
4. May 1, 2013
RivieraWaves company and product lines
• Leading semiconductor IP and
design services for Bluetooth®
and Wi-Fi™
• Created in January 2010
• Team of >30 highly skilled
engineers
• More than 20 customers,
including 6 from top-25
semiconductor company
• Markets: mobile, STB, consumer,
medical, industrial, smart
metering, …
BT2.1+EDR/3.0
BB controller
CMOS RF
Bluetooth low energy
BB controller
SW + profiles
CMOS RF
BT4.0
BB controller
CMOS RF
802.11abg
MAC: HW + SW
Modem: HW
802.11abgn/ac
MAC: HW + SW
Modem: HW
From 1x1 upto 4x4, 2SS
802.11abgn/ac
MAC: HW+SW
Modem: DSP based
From 2x2 upto 4x4, 4SS
Integrated platform
Embedded 32-bit CPU
Integrated platform
Embedded 32-bit CPU
5. May 1, 2013
Why Bluetooth Smart for medical and sport & fitness?
• Low Power
– Peak power as low as ANT and other
proprietary 2.4GHz solutions (~10mW)
– Optimized protocol with minimal packet
exchange over the air (~µW)
– Year+ lifetime on coin cell battery
• Reliable and secure link
– Frequency hopping Quality&Security
– Use of AES128 Security
• Low infrastructure cost
– Standard solution, huge WW deployment
– Bluetooth Smart Ready Hubs: smart
phones, tablets, laptops, digital TV, Set Top
Boxes, …
Bluetooth Smart Ready hubs
Bluetooth Smart devices
6. May 1, 2013
Bluetooth Smart RF IP: icyTRX
• Complete RF transceiver including
– RF front-end (LNA, PA)
– Frequency synthesizer
– Mixer
– RX ADC
– Analog RSSI measurement
– digital baseband (modem)
7. May 1, 2013
icyTRX: a high perf & low cost Bluetooth Smart RF
• Techno:
– UMC 90nm
– Full digital CMOS process
– Other process and nodes available on request
• High performance
– Sensitivity: -94dBm (typical) @ 0.1% BER
– Current consumption
• TX 0dBm: 9.5mA @ 1,2 V
• RX: 7.5mA @ 1, 2 V
• Low cost
– Size: < 2mm2
– No process options
– No external RF components required
– Single ended antenna
– Single input power supply @ 1.2V
8. May 1, 2013
Bluetooth Smart baseband controller
• Easy integration into any SoC platform
– Sub-System reference platform available
• AES-CCM128 hardware engine, available as a security tool box for application
• Packet generation and decoding (formatting, CRC, …)
• Complete Bluetooth Smart event handling, leading to lower power consumption
• 8MHz only!
Processor bus
CPU
System
RAM
BLE
SW
EM
SRAM
ROM or
flash
master
slave
BLE
Radio
BLE
Baseband
controller
ADC
DAC
ctrl
M
O
D
E
M
Periph.
Int.
ctrl
Clk / rst /
Power
manager
9. May 1, 2013
Event based versus packet based architecture
• Packet based:
• Frame based:
• Event based
TX NACK TX ACK
TX NACK TX ACK
TX NACK TX ACK
BB/RF activity
CPU activity
BB/RF activity
CPU activity
BB/RF activity
CPU activity
10. May 1, 2013
Flexible solution to accommodate popular partitioning options
Standard HCI (Ex: UART)
Standard HCI (Ex: UART)
BB controller+ RF
Fully Hosted
Single CPU system
Software stack
Hardware + RF
Link Layer
HCI
HCI
BB controller+ RF
SMP
Link Layer
Proximity
FindMe
HealthThermo
HeartRate
HID
Split
Dual CPU system
MCU
BLE IC
ATT
GAP, GATT
…
APP
Application
SMP
L2CAP
Proximity
FindMe
HealthThermo
HeartRate
HID
ATT
GAP, GATT
…
APP
BB controller+ RF
Link Layer
Fully Embedded
Dual CPU system
MCU
BLE IC
SMP
L2CAP
Proximity
FindMe
HealthThermo
HeartRate
HID
ATT
…
GAP, GATT
Proprietary HCI (Ex: UART)
APP
Proprietary HCI (Ex: UART)
L2CAP
11. May 1, 2013
Innovative system partitioning: the 4th option
• Low cost CPU-less BLE IC
• Full software from LL to application
running on MCU
SMP
L2CAP
Proximity
FindMe
HealthThermo
PUID
SRCP
ATT
GAP, GATT
…
APP
Serial Interface (e.g. SPI)
Baseband + RF
Serial Interface (e.g. SPI)
Single CPU, Dual Chip system
MCU
BLE CPU-less
IC
Link Layer
12. May 1, 2013
Dynamic attribute database
• The RivieraWaves GATT is based on dynamic attribute database
architecture
• Can be dynamically configured depending on profile requirements
SMP
L2CAP
Proximity
FindMe
HealthThermo
PUID
SRCP
ATT
GAP, GATT
…
APP
Link Layer
ROM
SRAM or
flash
• Thanks to this architecture:
– The entire software stack up to GATT
can be put in ROM for cost reduction
– Attribute database, profile and
application can reside in SRAM or flash
– Even if ROMed, the solution is still
flexible and can be used for various
applications, with minimal memory
footprint.
– New profiles can be supported
13. May 1, 2013
Implementation scenario 1 – fully hosted configuration
• Single chip / single CPU wireless microcontroller solution
– Most integrated solution
– Lowest power consumption
– Suitable for ultra small devices
• Most software can be ROMed
Full BLE protocol
stack, profiles
and application
14. May 1, 2013
Implementation scenario 2 – split configuration
• Connectivity IC + microcontroller IC: Dual chip / 2 CPUs solution
– Flexible: BLE IC can be connected to any microcontroller IC through HCI
– BLE IC running time critical software (lower layers BLE protocol stack below HCI)
– Microcontroller IC running upper layers BLE protocol stack, profiles and
application
– HCI interface is standardized in the Bluetooth specifications
• Full BLE IC software can be ROMed
Upper layers BLE
protocol stack, profiles
and application
Lower layers BLE
protocol stack (Link Layer)
HCI
BLE IC
MCU IC
15. May 1, 2013
Implementation scenario 3 – Connectivity IC: different split
• Connectivity IC + microcontroller IC: Dual chip / 2 CPUs solution
– BLE IC running full BLE protocol stack (and possibly profiles if not in MCU IC)
– Microcontroller IC running application (and possibly profiles if not in BLE IC)
– Lowest impact on MCU performance and memory
– 2 chips solution, 2 CPU
• Full BLE IC software can be ROMed, except attribute database
Profiles + application
Full BLE
protocol stack
Proprietary HCI
BLE IC
MCU IC
16. May 1, 2013
Implementation scenario 4 - Transceiver IC
• Transceiver IC + microcontroller IC: Dual chip / 1 CPU solution
– Flexible: BLE IC can be connected to any microcontroller IC through SPI
– Low cost BLE IC, like proprietary 2.4GHz RF IC
• no CPU
• Small memory (TX/RX buffers and control structures)
• Microcontroller IC running whole software
– Connected to the processor-less BLE IC through SPI
– Runs the whole BLE SW stack (bigger memory), from Link layer to profiles and
applications.
SPI
Full BLE protocol
stack, profiles
and application
BLE IC
MCU IC
17. May 1, 2013
Development platform
• Flexible FPGA board with push buttons, joystick, LCD screen and sensor
interfaces
• Allow full Bluetooth Smart application development
• Connected to iPhone 4S running NiceWaves™ Bluetooth Smart demo app
– Stores data on web database (on RW server) for remote monitoring
Bluetooth Smart eval kit
iPhone 4S
Running NiceWaves
Bluetooth Smart App
Data base in the cloud
Battery
