nRF7002 Expansion Board

Nordic Semiconductor's nRF7002 expansion board is a plug-in board for adding Wi-Fi 6 connectivity to the Nordic Thingy:53. The board contains what users need to get started developing Wi-Fi applications with the Thingy:53. The board connects with a PCB edge connector to the Thingy:53’s expansion slot and uses the Thingy:53’s nRF5340 multiprotocol system-on-chip (SoC) as a host device for the nRF7002 Wi-Fi companion IC. With a firmware upgrade, the Thingy:53 can communicate with the Edge Impulse Studio directly over Wi-Fi.

The nRF7002 supports the development of low-power Wi-Fi 6 applications and enables the Thingy:53 to use Wi-Fi 6 features such as OFDMA, beamforming, and target wake time (TWT). The nRF7002 expansion board can also be used for easy prototyping with other Nordic host devices, with castellations for all pins on the nRF7002 and perforations along the neck of the Thingy:53 specific connector, making it possible to break off.

To communicate with the Thingy:53’s internal nRF5340 SoC, the nRF7002 expansion board uses SPI, and a 3-wire coexistence interface to allow seamless coexistence with other protocols like BLE or Thread.

The nRF7002 expansion board is integrated and supported in Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK. The nRF7002 companion IC is the first device in Nordic’s portfolio of unique Wi-Fi products that combine seamlessly with Nordic’s existing ultra-low power technologies. Nordic brings decades of ultra-low-power wireless IoT and silicon design expertise to Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi 6 brings added benefits to IoT applications including further efficiency gains supporting long-life, battery-powered Wi-Fi operations.

With this Wi-Fi 6 expansion board, the Nordic Thingy:53 supports wireless protocols used in Matter including Bluetooth® LE (BLE) for commissioning, Thread for low-power mesh, and Wi-Fi for high-throughput. Matter is a standard that is championed by Apple, Amazon, Google, Nordic Semiconductor, Samsung, and other companies in consumer IoT.