Development kit for game-changing IoT power-saving IC
Nanopower Semiconductor AS has announced the first evaluation kit to support its breakthrough nPZero product, a power-saving IC which reduces the energy consumption of battery-powered applications by up to 90%.
The kit demonstrates the complete feature set and capabilities of the nPZero chip and enables OEMs to assess the performance of the nPZero power-saving IC in their applications. With the kit, developers can easily configure the nPZero power-saving IC to autonomously power up sensor peripherals, read data, and wake up the system as needed. The ultra-low-power nPZero IC powers down a microcontroller host, takes over the controller role and autonomously handles power-up, configuration, and reading data from up to four sensors or other peripherals.
When triggered by user-defined rules, the nPZero will power up the host and return control to the host. This allows the host to remain off for long periods while the system detects and responds to events. As a result, typical battery-powered, wireless IoT systems can reduce total power consumption by as much as 90%.
The full-featured kit is easy to use and comprises a main evaluation board with headers for attaching a microcontroller host board in Arduino format. It also comes with an MCU board featuring a low-power STMicroelectronics STM32L053C8.
The evaluation board also includes PMOD headers to connect up to four sensor boards. Developers can use any PMOD sensor board with an I2C or SPI interface. To aid fast system evaluation, Nanopower supplies an ams OSRAM AS6212 temperature sensor board and STMicroelectronics LIS2DW12 accelerometer board with the kit.
The nPZero Configurator development tool enables the configuration and programming of the kit’s main board. Developers can adjust settings through an intuitive graphical user interface without writing code manually. Once setup is complete, the nPZero Configurator automatically generates the necessary code for the API.
Nanopower CEO Tore Irgens Kuhnle said: ‘The release of the first evaluation kit for the nPZero power-saving IC is a transformative moment for our company. Now our customers can start working with the IC and experience first-hand how Nanopower can help them lower power consumption, enabling them to create new and exciting products.’
Shipments of the kit to partners and to fulfil online pre-orders begin later in March, while general availability is expected by the end of Q2 2025.
At Embedded World, Nanopower is demonstrating two designs based on its nPZero power-saving IC at Embedded World. The first is an energy harvesting demonstration, developed jointly with TDK, that features the nPZero power-saving IC continuously controlling environmental sensors, including the TDK CH201 time-of-flight sensor. The system is powered by TDK CeraCharge solid-state batteries energised by Epishine indoor photovoltaic cells. The second demonstration showcases the nPZero Configurator tool for configuring a nPZero IC linked to a Nordic Semiconductor nRF54 wireless microcontroller-based system.
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