Texas-based Silicon Labs has unveiled its lowest-power Bluetooth LE SoC with integrated Can-FD and peripherals to enable smaller, longer-lasting IoT devices at lower cost.

The BG2B Bluetooth Low Energy wireless SoC can help developers build smaller, more secure and longer-lasting battery-powered IoT devices by combining power efficiency, security and integrations.

As Bluetooth LE applications become more sophisticated, developers struggled to add capabilities such as secure ranging, location awareness, security and richer peripheral integration while preserving battery life and compact designs expected of today’s wireless IoT devices. BG2B addresses these demands with a low-power Bluetooth architecture, a complete feature set for Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Secure Vault High security and integrated peripherals including Can-FD, LED drivers and dual ADCs, in a single integrated platform.

Designed for use in secure ranging, asset tracking, electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart homes, industrial monitoring and vehicle diagnostics, it helps developers extend battery life while preparing for more demanding Bluetooth LE applications.

“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,” said Daniel Cooley, CTO at Silicon Labs. “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.”

Battery life remains one of the biggest problems for battery-powered IoT devices as products continue adding more sensing, intelligence and wireless capabilities. The SoC has a dual-output DC-DC power architecture and multi-core design that improve efficiency across active, receive and sleep modes.

It is the lowest-power Bluetooth LE device in Silicon Labs’ portfolio, delivering 14% to 15% lower MCU active current, lower Bluetooth receive current and 1.1µA EM2 sleep current with RAM retention, enabling longer battery life for sleepy products such as wireless sensors, asset tags, smart locks, remotes, wearables and ESLs.

For developers building location-aware products, it supports Bluetooth Channel Sounding capabilities including mode three, normalised attack detector metric and inline phase correction term. Designed to meet Apple and Google Bluetooth Channel Sounding specifications, it helps developers build interoperable products across mobile ecosystems, supported by Silicon Labs’ Channel Sounding development, including a royalty-free ranging library, software, tools and engineering support.

The SoC combines Bluetooth LE with integrated Can-FD, enabling wireless diagnostics and monitoring for commercial vehicles, fleet management, industrial equipment and maintenance applications without requiring a separate Bluetooth bridge device.

Integrated LED boost and four-channel LED sink capabilities eliminate external LED driver circuitry, making BG2B suitable for ESLs, smart retail devices and battery-powered products requiring RGBW LED for status indication.

Additional integrated capabilities include dual 12bit ADCs for simultaneous analogue sampling, variable resistive load for more accurate battery health estimation, expanded memory and communication peripherals helping developers build more capable IoT devices while reducing external components.

As connected devices face increasingly stringent cyber security, it incorporates the firm’s Secure Vault technology to protect device identity, firmware, cryptographic keys and sensitive data.

Designed to support PSA level-three compliance, it helps manufacturers prepare for evolving security requirements such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act. Combined with Silicon Labs’ custom part manufacturing service, developers can securely provision devices with unique identities, certificates and cryptographic credentials during manufacturing.

The SoCs are available through an early customer engagement programme. Initial production hardware, including modules, are planned for 2027.

For more information about BG2B, read www.silabs.com/blog/bg2b-is-built-for-the-next-wave-of-bluetooth-le.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Silicon Labs (www.silabs.com) has operations in 16 countries.