Swiss semiconductor company ST Microelectronics and Massachusetts-based telecoms equipment supplier Blues Wireless worked together to produce Notecard, a system-on-module (SoM) that accelerates development of cellular IoT for connected assets.

The Blues Wireless Notecard builds on a low-power STM32L4R5 microcontroller (MCU), an STSafe secure element for management and device security, and an LIS2DTW12 for temperature sensing, motion and power-optimised location awareness.

Around the STM products, the Notecard wraps pre-paid embedded cellular data service, secure communications and a development model that reduces the time from concept-to-deployment for a broad range of cloud-connected IoT applications.

“Businesses are on a mission to accelerate digital transformation of their processes and one huge area of investment is connecting distributed physical assets,” said Mobeen Khan, chief operating officer at Blues Wireless. “The Notecard from Blues Wireless is designed with the developers of these in mind. Building with STM’s breadth of products, we have been able to develop this ultimate accelerator for IoT which reduces the complexity and cost of IoT by ten times.”

Loris Valenti, vice president at ST Microelectronics, added: “Up to now, the adoption of cellular connectivity for IoT devices has had two significant roadblocks. The first has been the challenge of building and securely connecting the pipes between the application and the cellular networks and the second has been the complications and expense of the various network providers. Blues Wireless has built a unique solution starting from the extraordinary value of STM’s control, security, sensing and protection portfolio, that passes that amazing value on to their customers.”

Notecards are available directly from Blues Wireless, starting at $49, and are available for LTE Cat-1, LTE Cat-M, NB-IoT and GSM carrier networks worldwide.

Founded in 2019, Blues Wireless is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

• ST Microelectronics has announced mass-market availability of its ST4SIM eSIM (embedded SIM) ICs for M2M applications through e-distribution.

The industrial eSIMs provide all the services needed to connect IoT devices to cellular networks. They are suitable for applications such as machinery condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, as well as asset tracking, energy management and connected healthcare devices.

In addition, by allowing remote management of the SIM profile in accordance with the GSMA specification, these eSIMs let users change the connectivity provider without having access to the device.

“With rich built-in features and access to world-class provisioning services, our ST4SIM family delivers a convenient solution for numerous M2M applications,” said Laurent Degauque, marketing director at ST Microelectronics. “Mass-market availability now lets developers everywhere leverage secure and flexible cellular connectivity in more applications than ever, including independent M2M development, proof-of-concept and prototype projects.”

STM also takes care of activation and deployment by arranging for device-onboarding and service-provisioning platforms provided by its authorised partner Truphone.

Using STM’s B-L462E-Cell 1 discovery kit powered by the ST4SIM, the user can also test and evaluate all product features pre-integrated in a complete ecosystem.

The ST4SIM is certified by GSMA and manufactured at STM’s GSMA SAS-UP accredited sites in Europe and south-east Asia. It is available in a standard MFF2 5 by 6mm DFN8 wettable flank package. Other package options are available to order, including a wafer-level chip-scale package.