Fanstel BC40C User manual

BLE 5.1, Modules, BC40C, BC40M, BC40P Ver0.90May2021
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BluNor BC40C is a powerful, highly flexible, ultra low power Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) using Nordic
nRF5340 SoC. With a dual core ARM CortexTM M33 MCU, embedded 2.4GHz multi-protocol transceiver, and
an integrated PCB trace antenna or a chip antenna. It allows faster time to market with reduced development
cost.
No external component needed to minimize host PCB area: Both 32 MHz and 32.768 KHz, -40oC to +105oC,
20 PPM crystals are integrated. DCDC inductors for VDD and VDDH are integrated.
Specifications:
nRF5340 CLAA, dual core ARM® Cortex M33
Application Core
• 128/64 MHz Cortex M33 with FPU and DSP
instructions
• 1MB flash, 512KB RAM
• 8KB 2-way set associate cache
• ARM® TrustZone® Cryptocell-312 co-processor
Network core:
• 64 MHz Cortex M33 with 2KB instruction cache
• 256KB flash, 64KB RAM
• 2.6 mA in RX and 3.2 mA in 0dBm TX
• Receiver Sensitivity: -98 dBm at 1Mbps
• TX power: programmable +3dBm to -20dBm
• BLE 5.1 data rate: 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 500kbps, 125kbps.
•
•
DC-DC converter, inductors for VDD, VDDH on
board.
Direct powered by Lithium batteries or USB supply (up
to 5.5V)
Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
Nordic SoftDevice Ready
Over-the-Air (OTA) firmware update
48 General purpose I/O pins
USB 2.0 full speed (12 Mbps) controller
QSPI interface
Type 2 NFC-A tag with wake-on field, Touch-to-pair
support
Programmable peripheral interconnect (PPI)
12 bit/200 Ksps ADC, 8 configurable channels with
programmable gain
Temperature sensor
Up to 3x pulse width modulator (PWM)
Audio peripherals: I2S, digital microphone interface
(PDM)
5 x 32 bit timers with counter mode
Up to 3x SPI masters/3x SPI slaves
Up to 2x I2C compatible 2-wire masters/slaves
2x UART (CTS/RTS)
Quadrature Demodulator (QDEC)
2x real time counters (RTC)
LGA pins: 64.
Both 32 MHz and 32.768KHz crystals on board
Integrated PCB trace or chip antenna
Operation voltage: 1.7V to 5.5V
QDID:
Model Summaries
module BC40C BC40M BC40P
SoC nRF5340 CLAA nRF5340 CLAA nRF5340 CLAA
Size 8.4x11.5x1.5 mm 8.4(10.1)x12.7x1.5mm 8.4x9x1.5mm
32 MHz and 32.768 kHz crystals Integrated Integrated Integrated
DC converter inductors, VDD,VDDH Integrated Integrated Integrated
BT Antenna Chip
PCB trace
Note: can only used with the
identical trace as approved,
and designed in the manual.
Modification of the trace
requires class II of the
antenna changes.
Pads for external
Max TX
Operating temp. -40oC to +105oC-40oC to +105oC-40oC to +105oC
Availability Sample 05/2021 Sample 05/2021 Sample 06/2021

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Table Of Contents
Specifications: ...................................................................................................................................................... 1
Model Summaries ................................................................................................................................................ 1
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
BC40C Block Diagram ......................................................................................................................................... 3
BC40C...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
BC40M ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3
BC40P ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Codes Development Using Nordic Tools .......................................................................................................... 4
Over-The-Air DFU ................................................................................................................................................ 4
nRF Connect SDK ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Development Tools .............................................................................................................................................. 4
3. Product Descriptions ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Block Diagram of nRF5340 .................................................................................................................................. 6
Mechanical Drawings ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Pin Assignments of BC40C ............................................................................................................................... 11
Pin Function ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
Mounting BC40M and BC40C on the Host PCB ............................................................................................... 15
Host Board Design for Low Cost or Long Range .............................................................................................. 16
4. BC40C Evaluation Board................................................................................................................................. 17
EV-BC40C and EV-BC40M Evaluation Board Schematics .............................................................................. 18
EV-BC40P Evaluation Board Schematics ......................................................................................................... 19
Nordic Development Tools ................................................................................................................................ 20
Android OS Apps ............................................................................................................................................... 20
iOS Apps ............................................................................................................................................................ 20
EV-BC40C EvaluationBoard Schematics ......................................................................................................... 21
Suggestion for Battery Power Application ......................................................................................................... 21
5. Miscellaneous .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Soldering Temperature-Time Profile for Re-Flow Soldering ............................................................................. 22
Cautions, Design Notes, and Installation Notes ................................................................................................ 22
Packaging and Lot Number ............................................................................................................................... 26
FCC LABEL ......................................................................................................................................................... 26
Revision History ..................................................................................................................................................... 27


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1. Introduction
BluNor BC40C Series are powerful, highly flexible, ultra low power wireless modules using Nordic nRF5340
SoCs. With a dual core ARM CortexTM M33 MCU, embedded 2.4GHz multi-protocol transceiver, and an
integrated antenna, it allows faster time to market with reduced development cost.
BC40C Block Diagram
The following is a block diagram of BC40C. Antenna circuit and main clock are integrated. All 48 GPIOs of
nRF5340 can be accessed from main board. For lower power consumption at idle state, a 32.768 kHz crystal
can be added on the host board.
There are 2 modules in the BC40C Series.
BC40C
• Uses an nRF5340 CLAA with dual core Cortex M33 MCU
• Integrated chip antenna.
• Size: 8.4x11.5x1.5mm
BC40M
• Uses an nRF5340 CLAA with dual core Cortex M33 MCU
• Integrated PCB trace antenna.
• Size: 8.4 (10.1)x12.7x1.5mm, L shape.
BC40P
• Uses an nRF5340 CLAA with dual core Cortex M33 MCU
• Pads for an external antenna.
• Size: 8.4x9.0x1.5mm.

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2. Codes Development Using Nordic Tools
Development tools from Nordic and other third party development tools recommended by Nordic should be
used.
Over-The-Air DFU
The nRF52840 is supported by an Over-The-Air Device Firmware Upgrade (OTA DFU) feature. This allows for
in the field updates of application software and SoftDevice.
nRF Connect SDK
nRF Connect SDK is a scalable and unified software development kit for building products based on all our nRF52,
nRF53 and nRF91 Series wireless devices. It offers developers an extensible framework for building size-optimized
software for memory-constrained devices as well as powerful and complex software for more advanced devices and
applications. It integrates the Zephyr RTOS and a wide range of samples, application protocols, protocol stacks, libraries
and hardware drivers.
For developing Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread and Zigbee products, the nRF Connect SDK contains all needed software,
including protocol stacks. For developing cellular IoT products it contains everything except the LTE modem firmware
that must be downloaded separately from the nRF9160 SiP product page. See the cellular IoT software for more details.
nRF Connect SDK also offers an unique integration of HomeKit Accessory Development Kit for developing products
using both HomeKit over Thread and HomeKit over Bluetooth Low Energy. It is a highly optimized solution that enables
battery-powered products with both the HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP) and application firmware running on a single
chip. MFi licensees can get access to the HomeKit repository by contacting us via Nordic DevZone private ticket.
nRF Connect SDK offers a single code base for all our devices and software components. It simplifies porting modules,
libraries and drivers from one application to another, thus reducing development time. By enabling developers to pick and
choose the essential software components for their application, high memory efficiency is guaranteed.
nRF Connect SDK is publicly hosted on GitHub, offers source code management with Git and has free SEGGER
Embedded Studio IDE support. Nordic runs continuous integration tests on the nRF Connect SDK code to ensure robust
and secure production quality code.
Development Tools
Nordic Semiconductor provides a complete range of hardware and software development tools for the nRF53 Series
devices. nRF53 DK board is recommended for firmware development.
Nordic software development tools can be downloaded.

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3. Product Descriptions
Brief description of nRF5340 SoC is provided. For full description of the SoC, please download from Nordic
Semiconductor website.
https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-low-energy

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Block Diagram of nRF5340
The following is a block diagram of Nordic nRF5340 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) SoC. Arrows with white
heads indicate signals that share physical pins with other signals.

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nRF5340 is a wireless ultra-low power multiple core System on Chip (SoC) integrating two fully programmable
Arm Cortex M33 processors, advanced security features, a range of peripherals, and a multi protocol 2.4 GHz
transceiver. transceiver supports Bluetooth low energy.
The two Arm Cortex M33 processors share the power, clock, and peripheral architecture with Nordic
Semiconductor nRF51, nRF52, and nRF91 Series of PAN/LAN SoCs, ensuring minimal porting efforts. The
application core is a full-featured Arm Cortex M33 processor including DSP instructions and FPU and running
at up to 128 MHz with 1MB of flash and 512 KB of RAM. The option to run the application processor at 64 MHz
allows the CPU to increase energy efficiency. The network core is an Arm Cortex M33 processor with a
reduced feature set, designed for ultra-low power operation. It runs at a fixed 64 MHz frequency and contains
256 KB of flash and 64 KB of RAM.
The peripheral set offers a variety of analog and digital functionality enabling single chip implementation of a
wide range of applications. Arm trustZone technology, Arm cryptoCell-312, and supporting blocks for ysytem
protection and key management are embedded for the advanced security needed for IoT applications.

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Mechanical Drawings
Soldering pads are identical for BC40C, BC40M, and BC40P. All modules have 64 LGA (Land Grid Array) pins.
Antenna areas are different. Mechanical drawings are different.
BC40C mechanical
drawings, top view. Module
size is
8.4x11.5x1.5mm.

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BC40M
mechanical drawings, top view. Module size is 8.4 (10.1) x 12.7 x 1.5mm, L-shape.

BLE 5.1, Modules, BC40C, BC40M, BC40P Ver0.90May2021
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BC40P mechanical
drawings, top view. Module
size is 8.4x9.0x1.5mm.

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Pin Assignments of BC40C
The followings are BC40C and BC40M pin assignment. Pin functions are in a table in next section. Please refer
to Nordic nRF5340 Product Specifications for detailed descriptions and features supported.
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fstruct_nrf53%2Fstruct%2Fnrf5340.html&cp=3_0

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BC40P pin assignment is below. It has two additional pins for external antenna connection.
BC40C/M/P BC40P nRF5340
pin# Only pin# pin name Descriptions
1 ANT Connection to an external antenna, BC40P only.
2 GND Ground for an external antenna.
A0 H2 P109 GPIO
A1 K3 P104 GPIO
A2 K5 P020 GPIO
A3 L7 P017/QSPI_CLK GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, clock
A4 L9 P015/QSPI2 GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, IO2
A5 K10 P013/QSPI0 GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, IO0
A6 L3 P105 GPIO
A7 J3 P106 GPIO
B0 L1 P025/AIN4 GPIO, Analog input
B1 K2 P024 GPIO
B2 K4 P022 GPIO
B3 K7 P018/QSPI_CS GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, chip select
B4 K9 P014/QSPI1 GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, IO1
B5 K8 P016/QSPI3 GPIO, Quad Serial Peripheral Interface, IO3
B6 J10 P007/AIN3 GPIO, Analog input
B7 J6 P012 GPIO, High speed SPI_DCX
C0 H1 P027/AIN6 GPIO, Analog input
C1 J2 P026/AIN5 GPIO, Analog input

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C2 J4 P021 GPIO
C3 J5 P019 GPIO
C4 J9 P009 GPIO, High speed SPI_MOSI
C5 J11 P102/I2C GPIO, I2C interface
C6 H12 P003/NFC2 GPIO, NFC antenna connection
C7 L12 P008 GPIO, High speed SPI clock
D0 F1 SWDIO Serial wire debug data for debug and programming
D1 F2 SWDCLK Serial wire debug clock for debug and programming
D2 G2 /RESET Reset, active low with internal pull up
D3 A5 VSS Ground
D4 F10 P005/AIN1 GPIO, Analog input
D5 G10 P004/AIN0 GPIO, Analog input
D6 H3 P023 GPIO
D7 H10 P006/AIN2 GPIO, Analog input
E0 A5 GND Ground
E1 E2 P029 GPIO
E2 G3 P107 GPIO
E3 C5 P031 GPIO
E4 E10 P101 GPIO
E5 D10 P100 GPIO
E6 K12 P103/I2C GPIO, I2C interface
E7 J7 P011 GPIO, High speed SPI chip select
F0 A5 GND Ground
F1 E3 P028/AIN7 GPIO, Analog input
F2 F3 P108 GPIO
F3 C7 P112 GPIO
F4 A5 GND Ground
F5 B11 VBUS 5V input for USB 3.3V regulator
F6 B12 VDDH High voltage DC power supply, 2.5V to 5.5V
F7 G11 P002/NFC1 GPIO, NFC antenna connection
G0 A5 VSS Ground
G1 C4 P030 GPIO
G2 E4 P110 GPIO
G3 C8 P113 GPIO
G4 B10 VDD DC power supply, 1.7V to 3.6V
G5 A11 D- USB data
G6 NC No Connect
G7 J8 P010 GPIO, high speed SPI MISO
H0 A5 GND Ground
H1 A5 GND Ground

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H2 C6 P111 GPIO
H3 C9 P114 GPIO
H4 C10 P115 GPIO
H5 A12 D+ USB data
H6 NC No Connect
H7 A5 VSS Ground
Pin Function

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Mounting BC40M and BC40C on the Host PCB
The following figure shows recommended mounting of BC40M module on the host PCB.
•
For the best Bluetooth range performance, the antenna area of module shall extend 4.4 mm outside the
edge of host PCB board, or 4.4 mm outside the edge of a ground plane.
• The next choice is to place a module on a corner of host PCB, the antenna area shall extend 4.4 mm from
the edge of ground plane. Ground plane shall be at least 5 mm from the edge of the antenna area of
module.
• We don’t recommend mounting BC40M module in the middle of a host PCB.
The
following figure shows recommended mounting of BC40C module on the host PCB.
• For the best Bluetooth range performance, the antenna area of module shall extend 3.2 mm outside the
edge of host PCB board, or 3.2 mm outside the edge of a ground plane.
• The next choice is to place a module on a corner of host PCB, the antenna area shall extend 3.2 mm from
the edge of ground plane. Ground plane shall be at least 5 mm from the edge of the antenna area of
module.
• We don’t recommend mounting BC40C module in the middle of a host PCB.
BC40P shall be mounted near the external connector for an antenna.
For the best Bluetooth range performance, keep all external metal at least 30mm from the antenna area.

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Host Board Design for Low Cost or Long Range
On nRF53 series SoCs, Nordic offers various memory options and protocol supports. Fanstel offers various
antenna and power amplifier options. A host board can be designed to accommodate these nRF53 modules.
Our suggestions for host PCB design:
If your main goal is minimum PCB cost,
• use a 2-sided PCB.
• Use library component from EV-BC40C Gerber files. They can be downloaded from
http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/. BC40C library component can be used. However, signal
routing can be difficult on a 2-sided PCB.
If you main goal is maximum wireless range,
• use a 4 or more layers PCB.
• Use library component from EV-C40C Gerber files. They can be downloaded from
http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/.

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4. BC40C Evaluation Board
An evaluation board consists of the followings:
• Mini USB cable
• Evaluation board
• 10-conductor cable for connection to Nordic nRF53 DK (DK is not included)

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EV-BC40C and EV-BC40M Evaluation Board Schematics
BC40C and BC40M
evaluation board
schematics can be this one or
the EV-BC40P
schematics on the next page.

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EV-BC40P Evaluation Board Schematics
BC40P module has two additional pins for an external antenna. They are connected to an u.FL connector on the evaluation
board.

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Nordic Development Tools
A Nordic nRF53 DK is recommended for programming this evaluation board. Nordic development tools can be
downloaded from:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=%2Fstruct_nrf53%2Fstruct%2Fnrf5340.html
Many application examples can be downloaded from Nordic website.
Some firmware, Android OS, and iOS app codes can be downloaded from Bluetooth 5 Codes section of this
Fanstel webpage.
http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/
BC40 firmware can be used in all nRF5340 modules without power amplifier, e.g., BC40C, BC40M, and
BC40P.
Android OS Apps
The following Android OS apps are available for download from Google Play Store:
BlueNor nrf5x: to use with Bluetooth 5 stacks, AT commands, or Slave firmware. Master firmware does not
connect to a smartphone. Source codes can be downloaded from http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/
BlueNor Mesh: to use with BlueNor mesh firmware to send command to any node in a mesh. Node number is
displayed when acknowledgement is received. Source codes will be uploaded to Fanstel website when
supporting Bluetooth 5.
iOS Apps
The following iOS apps can be downloaded from Apple APP Store.
BlueNor Mesh: to use with BlueNor mesh firmware to send command to any node in a mesh. Node number is
displayed when acknowledgement is received.
BlueNor nrf5x firmware, apps, and source codes will be uploaded when ready.