STMicroelectronics Introduces Zigbee 3.0 to the STM32WB55 microcontrollers

STMicroelectronics has added Zigbee 3.0 support to its STM32WB55 wireless microcontroller family using the Zigbee PRO protocol stack. The STM32 Wireless MCU (STM32WB55) was launched last year with a dual-core Arm Cortex-M4 CPU and Cortex M0+ core, as well as  Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 radios.

STMicro is hoping to expand the applications of the STM32WB into areas like home automation as Zigbee 3.0 is making brands choose Zigbee for their smart-home connectivity solution, smart-lighting, smart-building, mesh IoT connectivity, and many more.

The STM32WB55 microcontrollers already provide support for Thread and Bluetooth 5.0 and the inclusion of the Zigbee connectivity will take this to the next level. The STM32WB55 Zigbee 3.0 software includes support for the Exegin Zigbee PRO protocol stack which is available for free. To ease development and deployment, STM32WB Zigbee solution supports 46 Zigbee 3.0 clusters and a further 21 clusters support legacy products and with the Zigbee 3.0 ZCL, developers can easily speed up their certification process thereby reducing production and development cost.

Leslie Mulder, Exegin’s President said; “This is a milestone for the Zigbee Alliance, with the advent of ST’s Zigbee 3.0 offering, Zigbee is reaching a new level of maturity, one that has the potential to cement its and ST’s leadership roles in the IoT market.”

In order to reduce the development time, the Zigbee 3.0 software suite has been included in the STM32CubeWB MCU Package. The STM32CubeWB  is a single package suite that contains all the needed and essential software components for developing applications on the STM32WB microcontrollers which is based on the STM32Cube initiative.

The STM32WB microcontrollers can easily find deployments in battery-powered and batteryless applications thanks to Green power support. They are compatible with the smart Energy 1.4 by Zigbee Alliance to enable easy implementation of power and energy management applications such as smart meters.

The STM32WB microcontrollers might just be the only embedded solution you will need when working with connectivity-based solutions. It gives various low-power and reliable connectivity options you will ever need. Featuring an Arm Cortex-M4 with Floating Point Unit, DSP instructions, and a memory protection unit (MPU), Arm Cortex-M0+ coprocessor, and RF transceiver with a link budget of 106dB for reliable connection over distance and its ultra-low-power integration, and not to mention it’s over-the-air update (OTA) capability, the STM32WB is an engineer’s dream.

The announcement from STMicro can be accessed here.

Ayo Ayibiowu

I enjoy writing about the latest news in the areas of embedded systems with a special focus on AI on edge, fog computing, and IoT. When not writing, I am working on some cool embedded projects or data science projects. Got a tip, freebies, launch, idea, gig, bear, hackathon (I love those), or leak? Contact me.

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