Last year, Semtech released the LR2021 LoRa Plus transceiver chip, designed to address the low data-rate issue associated with LoRa, but surprisingly, they didn’t release a development board for the chip. Now, almost a year later, Seeed Studio and Semtech have partnered to introduce the LR2021 LoRa Plus development kit targeting long-range high-speed LoRa and FLRC applications up to 2.6 Mbps.
Not only does the board support LoRa Gen 4 technology, providing Sub-GHz, 2.4 GHz ISM, and S/L-band operation, but a XIAO nRF54L15 board also adds dual-core processing (Arm Cortex-M33 + RISC-V) and supports other short-range protocols, including NFC, Bluetooth LE 6.0, Matter, Thread, and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols. The development board also features a 0.96-inch 128×64 OLED, three Grove connectors for expansion, a USB Type-C for power, SWD debugging, and two Sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz SMA connectors. It is compatible with Arduino Uno, STM32 Nucleo, and Nordic DK boards. It also features Fast Channel Activity Detection (CAD) for lower power consumption during channel sensing, making it suitable for global asset tracking, high-speed OTA updates, converged short- and long-range networking, as well as low-power audio and image transmission use cases.
Semtech LR2021 LoRa Plus Evaluation Kit specifications:
- Main Module – Seeed Studio XIAO nRF54L15 USB-C board
- SoC – Nordic Semi nRF54L15 wireless SoC
- CPU
- Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 128 MHz
- RISC-V coprocessor for “software-defined peripheral.”
- Memory – 256 KB SRAM
- Storage – 1.5MB Non-volatile Memory (NVM)
- Wireless
- Bluetooth LE 6.0 (includes Channel Sounding)
- Thread, Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4-2020)
- Matter
- Amazon Sidewalk
- Proprietary 2.4 GHz protocols with a new 4 Mbps mode
- NFC support
- Antennas – Ceramic antenna + IPEX4 connector for external antenna
- CPU
- SoC – Nordic Semi nRF54L15 wireless SoC
- Wireless Module – Wio-LR2021 module based on the LR2021 LoRa Plus transceiver chip (QFN-48, 5 x 5 x 0.9 mm)
- Supported Frequency Bands
- Sub-GHz Terrestrial – 150 MHz to 960 MHz (Standard 470/868/915 MHz support)
- 2.4 GHz ISM band (global LoRa)
- S-Band (Satellite/NTN): 1.9 GHz to 2.5 GHz; designed for direct-to-satellite (LEO) communication to cover remote areas (oceans, deserts)
- L-Band Support – Licensed 1.5 GHz to 2.0 GHz bands for Non-Terrestrial Networks
- Supported Modulations – LoRa, LR-FHSS, FLRC (Fast Long-Range Communication) up to 2.6 Mbps, (G)FSK, OQPSK, OOK, BLE PHY
- Output Power
- Sub-GHz – +22 dBm to -10 dBm
- 2.4 GHz – up to +12 dBm
- Receiver Sensitivity
- -141.5 dBm (LoRa SF12 @ 125 kHz)
- -111 dBm (FLRC @ 260 kbps)
- -97 dBm (BLE @ 2 Mbps)
- Phase Noise (Harmonic Noise)
- -104 dBc/Hz @ 915 MHz (100 kHz offset)
- -93 dBc/Hz @ 2.45 GHz (100 kHz offset)
- RF Interfaces
- RFI_LF (Sub-GHz)
- RFI_HF (2.4 GHz)
- 50Ω antenna impedance
- Host Interface – SPI
- Sleep Current
- 470 nA (without RTC)
- 1.28 µA (with RTC)
- Supported Frequency Bands
- Display – 0.96-inch OLED display (128 x 64 resolution)
- Expansion
- 2x Grove I2C ports, 1x Grove UART port
- Arduino-compatible header on the back
- Debugging – Dedicated SWD and SAMD debug interfaces
- Misc
- User button (K1), Reset button (K2), and Power LED
- Dual SMA ports (LF for Sub-GHz, HF for 2.4 GHz/Satellite)
- Power – 5V via USB Type-C (on XIAO module)
- Operating Voltage – 3.3V
- Consumption – Sleep current as low as 470nA; RX current as low as 5.7mA (LoRa SF7)
- Dimension – 65 x 73 x 27 mm (Expansion board)
- Temperature – -40°C to +85°C
The development board supports Zephyr RTOS and Semtech’s LoRa USP (Unified Software Platform). Developers can use the usp_zephyr repository as a ready-made integration layer between Zephyr RTOS and Semtech’s LR20xx radio family (including the LR2021). Instead of manually porting radio drivers or modifying Zephyr’s core files, the repository is structured as a Zephyr module that plugs directly into the build system through Zephyr’s West workspace management tool.
The kit includes support for LoRa Basics Modem (LBM), a software library from Semtech that makes it easy to build LoRaWAN devices. Instead of writing networking code from scratch, developers can use LBM to handle network joining (OTAA), uplink messages, downlinks, and regional settings for both Sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz LoRa bands. The package also provides ready-to-use example projects, including periodic uplink, geolocation, certification testing, and radio abstraction controller (RAC). This ensures compatibility with multiple regional LoRaWAN specifications (TS001-1.0.4, RP2-1.0.3) and popular LoRaWAN network servers such as The Things Network and ChirpStack.More information is available on the wiki.
While it’s the first LR2021 hardware we’ve ever seen, we previously covered LR1121-based devices such as the T-Display S3 Pro LR1121, LILYGO T-LoRa Pager, and Wio-LR1121 tiny LoRa module. This is important because the LR1121 is the first module to introduce the concept of dual-band (Sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz) LoRa and S-band satellite connectivity.
The Semtech LR2021 LoRa Plus Evaluation Kit is available for $99.00 on the Seeed Studio store, and might become available on the company’s AliExpress store after the Chinese New Year holidays. The kit includes two of everything (two XIAO nRF54L15 modules, two expansion boards, and two sets of antennas) for immediate point-to-point testing. This chip can handle multiple regions with one design, but the company sells it in three (EU868, US915, and CN490) variants because the SMA antennas included are tuned to those specific frequencies.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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